Respawn dev responds to criticism of monetization in Apex Legends
Respawn EntertainmentRespawn Entertainment’s Director of Communications took to social media to engage with the community’s biggest concerns around the game, and Apex Legends’ monetization system was a hot button issue.
Ryan Rigney has been the face of the Apex Legends dev team for a while now, and he continues to embrace that role by openly engaging with the player base when big problems arise.
In the early hours of October 14, he ventured on to the game’s subreddit and talked about a variety of issues plaguing the game – ranging from problems with Wattson’s ultimate to the philosophy of in-game transactions and their role in the game’s economy.
His answers may not please everyone, but it’s a good start to increasing the flow of information between Respawn and its players.
Apex Legends dev explains how monetization is a “balance”
Respawn EntertainmentWhen asked about the pricing and distribution of in-game items in Apex as compared to Destiny 2, this is what he had to say: “I’ll say that different genres have different expectations and monetization teams on every game are trying to strike a balance between making the business a healthy profit and not making items unattainable for non-spenders or low-spenders.”
While that answer might not be what all players wanted to hear, it’s hard to argue against. The high rarity items in Apex are designed to keep players spending until they get them, and anyone who opts not to go that route will have to commit a huge chunk of time to make progress towards one.
This not only means that they’re playing the game more in order to get the item, but they’re also more likely to continue playing after finally earning it.
He concluded: “It’s not really my discipline tho[ugh] so I can’t speak as a real owner of these decisions could.”
Comms Strategy Thread 🧵
How do you talk to customers when you’ve got problems? When the product doesn’t work, something’s screwed up, etc.
There are only two things people want in these situations: They want to know what you’re doing to fix it, and they want it fixed ASAP.
— Ryan K. Rigney (@RKRigney) October 13, 2021
All of this follows an October 13 Twitter thread where he documented the tightrope that all game dev teams must walk in order to satisfy the player base and their publishers.
While Rigney might not be directly in charge of those decisions, it is clear that he’s using his voice to keep players in the loop as much as possible.