Respawn, the company behind Apex Legends, has been forced to apologise over one of its developers.
In case you missed it, a developer lost his temper with players over Reddit, and ended up calling them “d*cks” and “*ss-hats”.
The original Reddit thread came from Respawn, who explained that the Iron Crown Collection Event had ‘missed the mark’. If you missed that whole issue, we explain it further down in the article.
Anyway, the rant came from executive producer Drew McCoy, he ended up calling players “*ss-hats” and “d*cks” as the thread developed into a debate regarding the relationship between devs and fans.
Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella has issued an apology to fans over his official Twitter account.
— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) 19 August 2019
He wrote: “On Friday, we gave Apex fans an update in how we were changing the Iron Crown event. Some of the team then joined a discussion with our community on Reddit, and things got to a pretty bad place. Some of our folks crossed the line with their comments, and that’s not how we want Respawn to be represented,
“I apologise to any of our fans that were offended. I will always stand behind the team here at Respawn and support them on speaking out against some of the toxic and nasty comments being directed at them, including everything from death threats to comments aimed at their family and loved ones. But we shouldn’t contribute to it when we do comment, and add to the very thing we want to prevent,
“We need to lead by example. Last week we didn’t do that, and going forward we will be better. Having an open, healthy relationship with our community is incredibly important to all of us at Respawn.”
ICYMI, in the Reddit thread, McCoy said: “I’ve been in the industry long enough to remember when players weren’t complete *ss-hats to developers and it was pretty neat. I forged a bunch of long lasting relationships from back then,
“Would be awesome to get back there, and not engaging with toxic people or asking ‘how high’ when a mob screams ‘jump’ is hopefully a start.”
A Reddit user referred to Apex as “money-grabbing f*cks”, to which McCoy replied: “Hey everyone—found the d*ck I was talking about.”
He later explained his rant, saying: “I think technically I was calling gamers d*cks? I dunno. I had a spicy lunch, feelin’ it.”
He then joked that Apex Legends players were “freeloaders”, saying: “The amount of people who spend is crazy low, most of ya’ll are freeloaders (and we love that!) and a change in price doesn’t move the needle.”
Soon, more people began getting involved in the debate. Community manager Jay Frechette joined in, defending McCoy. He said: “So it’s fine for you all to call us liars, full of sh*t, and other personal attacks when we communicate an apology and update to the event but we’re ‘immature’ when we call people out on it. Got it.”
After the incident, one of the most popular posts on the Subreddit claimed Respawn had “alienated [the] playerbase”.
They wrote: “You committed the ultimate cardinal sin, you got personal. You, as a team of professionals trying to make money, got personal. You got personal and decided to insult your playbase, calling us ‘*ss-hats’ and ‘freeloaders’. Not a wise move,
“We won’t forget this. You’ve set a new tone for the kind of interaction we’ll be having with you. It’s a cold one.”
However, it seems that not everyone agrees with that sentiment. Another post says: “While we have a right to be upset, we cannot let a few bad apples (replies) warrant chopping down the whole tree,
“What I’m saying is we can be civil and NOT resort to full on toxicity, the store and its prices 100% needs work and tweaking but let’s not act like all of Respawn is evil here.”
This basically all started when the true cost of its new Iron Crown Collection for Apex Legends came to light.
As part of the Second Season of the free-to-play shooter, the Iron Crown Collection was a special edition cosmetic set that could be purchased through loot boxes.
The Bloodhound heirloom set contained an axe, a banner pose and a kill quip, but if you want to get your hands on them it’s going to set you back around £136 GBP or $166 USD. So…it ain’t cheap.
The huge price tag comes as the set is only available once you’ve gotten each and every one of the other 24 rare or legendary items that are available as part of the event. You get two of these for free and the rest can be found in randomised loot boxes.
Each of these loot boxes will set you back 700 Apex coins, meaning you’ll have to spend 15,400 Apex coins to get the 22 rare and legendary items.
Once you’ve gotten your paws on the full set you can then fork over 3500 Apex coins for the Bloodhound set, putting your total expense at 18,900 Apex coins.
Depending on whether you can buy your loot boxes in bulk or if you can only afford to buy a few at a time, you could be looking at spending up to $170 USD just to get the Bloodhound set. Needless to say, players aren’t happy.
On Twitter one player branded the move as “insulting,” while another “begged” for more free solo event packs.
The only other way to obtain the Heirloom set is via the Apex Pack loot pool. Firstly you need the Wraith Heirloom set, which is guaranteed in one of every 500 packs opened.
If you already have the Wraith Heirloom set, every pack opening you then complete will help towards opening the Bloodhound Heirloom. Again, this is one in every 500 packs guaranteed. In theory, you could open 999 packs before getting lucky.
Featured Image Credit: Respawn Entertainment/ Apex Legends