Respawn developer hits out at Apex Legends leakers who “ruin” the game
Respawn EntertainmentRespawn Entertainment Project Lead Drew McCoy hit out at the types of leaks that “ruin” the game, in the aftermath of the events that led up to Apex Legends Season 4’s big surprise.
Games as a service have given rise to leakers and data miners who stay on top of every update or mistakes from studios to share online with their following. Leaks for Apex Legends range from routine cosmetic releases to major story plots revealed before the devs get to announce them.
But sometimes there are discoveries that could spoil a huge plot twist that the studio could have been working on for months.
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For Apex, there have been a few instances of that being the case, the latest coming in the form of a crucial interaction between Forge and Revenant that prematurely came online and quickly spread across the web.
In the hours after Respawn publically released the video which seemingly held Forge’s fate, McCoy touched on the topic of leaks with Apex fans.
“Leaks are the absolute worst. I’ve never worked on a single project where it was purposeful or wanted,” McCoy said. “We spend insane amounts of time and energy to create cool surprises. Really sucks when someone wants internet points bad enough to ruin that.”
Since it keeps popping up:
Leaks are the absolute worst. I've never worked on a single project where it was purposeful or wanted.
We spend insane amounts of time and energy to create cool surprises. Really sucks when someone wants internet points bad enough to ruin that.
— Drew McCoy (@DKo5) January 27, 2020
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Senior Animator at Respawn, Moy Parra, voiced disapproval for the leaks, but was more focused on the “silver line.”
The devs’ reactions to the amount of leaks spurred a conversation online between people who supported the view and those who say leaks could be good for a title like Apex Legends.
“Leaks build hype,” said ‘Desu,’ who describes themselves as an admin for prominent dataminer ‘That1MiningGuy. “They encourage people to keep playing, they show what is to come. If we didn’t have these leaks we’d just be blindly hoping for another event and LTM till the next season. Surprises are great, but keeping the player base active and excited is better.”
sorry for any part I played in the negative part, I let my excitement get the best of me when certain things were found. I usually do better about not 'spoiling' things, and just sharing code based speculation, never meant any disrespect for you guys.
— That1MiningGuy (@That1MiningGuy) January 27, 2020
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In fact, That1MiningGuy said he was willing to remove everything he’s published about Apex, but says that the content he’s posted has received “encouragement” from Respawn.
“Drew [McCoy], I’m a big fan of yours, and am willing to straight-up delete everything I can regarding Apex if you want me to,” That1MiningGuy said. “The direct addresses to me have been encouraging/saying it’s fair game what I do.”
