The unprecedented success of Apex Legends has been both a blessing and a curse for Respawn Entertainment. On one hand, the battle royale has the privilege of boasting a player base numbering in the tens of millions, but with such an explosive start to life, the developer has struggled to keep up. Or so we thought, at least. Last week, Respawn published an enlightening blog post that shed light on Apex‘s development process, as well as its future and the studio’s plans going forward.
The post addressed several key concerns and issues players have raised in the months since release, including cheating, performance issues and, of course, a lack of content updates. For the latter, in particular, Respawn says it never intended to follow in Fortnite‘s footsteps and release updates on a weekly basis, but rather, introduce sizable gameplay additions that have a meaningful, lasting impact on the metagame.
The revelation has since worked wonders in allaying fears for Apex Legends‘ future, though Respawn, unsurprisingly, kept tight-lipped on specific future updates. With that said, however, some fans on Reddit have managed to squeeze a response out of the developer in lieu of the blog post. One massive request stretching as far back as February concerns the prospect of additional game modes, and in response to one fan asking if Respawn is “exploring new ways to play,” a member of the community management team responded with: “The short answer is: yes. That’s all I can say!”
The answer leaves the door wide open for interpretation, especially as the original question mentions not just solos and duos, but skill-based matchmaking modes and private matches, too. Still, it’s reassuring to know that progress is being made.
Respawn is already well aware of the huge demand for alternative play modes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a more concrete announcement to make around the time of Season 2’s arrival. Speaking of which, the developer recently confirmed that Apex Legends‘ second season will ship with at least one new character and weapon, as well as several map changes. See here for all the details.