Respawn CEO Explains Lack of Apex Legends Content

Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella explained the relative sparseness of new content for Apex Legends on Tuesday.

Speaking at GamesBeat Summit 2019, Zampella stated that Apex Legends’ overnight success had taken the team by surprise. The game rocketed to prominence in a scene that, because of Epic Games’ leading the charge with Fortnite, expected biweekly content injections. Respawn wasn’t sure how to deal with that kind of demand.

“We didn’t expect it to be as big as it was,” Zampella said. “I don’t know how you can prepare for that. We’re still figuring out internally what the cadence of content has to be, and how we support it. We’ve been a little dark because we’re figuring out internally what we need to do.”

The massive influx of players has also brought out flaws in the game that the team never saw, leading them to focus on polishing the experience before building on it too extensively.

“We’ve been firefighting, fixing things, and we’re going to put the focus back on those quality of life issues and make sure everything is perfect before we really start to build more content," Zampella said.

“I think that’s important. If the game’s not working for everybody, then it’s not fun for everybody.”

Zampella and the Apex Legends team's concern about committing to too difficult a content schedule seems well founded. A Polgyon report published Tuesday shed light on the oppressive crunch Epic Games has endured since Fortnite Battle Royale's release. Zampella and Respawn likely hope to avoid the same fate.

To date, Apex Legends has released only one new weapon and one new playable character since its launch Feb. 4.

Photo courtesy of Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts