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Respawn CEO Apologizes For Devs Who Insulted Apex Legends Players

A war of words broke out between Respawn Entertainment and some Apex Legends players in the game’s subreddit over the weekend, following a decision to rollback some controversial microtransactions in Apex Legends’ Iron Crown event. Now, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella is apologizing to any fans who may have been offended during the exchange.

Essentially, after players complained about the cosmetic items featured in the event, Respawn owned up to the mistake and noted how they need to do better moving forward. However, that’s when things went from bad to worse, which resulted in some of the devs responding to the community in a less than favorable manner. That said, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella has taken to Twitter (Below) to offer up an apology on the whole situation.

Of course, this prompted some of the fanbase to call for the firing of said employee, while others took the apology in stride. Either way, the situation certainly is a sticky one, and some feelings likely were hurt along the way. That said, Respawn is going to keep on making more content for Apex Legends as they do, and players will continue to play it.

The announcement to change the Apex Legends Iron Crown rewards system was made on the r/ApexLegends subreddit, and developers and community managers from Respawn were on the subreddit to answer questions from players.

Things started going out of hand when developers began responding to hateful messages and comments with some choice words of their own. “I’ve been in the industry long enough to remember when players weren’t complete asshats to developers, and it was pretty neat. I forged a bunch of long-lasting relationships back then,” Apex Legends project lead Drew McCoy wrote in response to a vitriolic comment.

Some in the Apex Legends community were angered by the developers’ response and subsequently the subreddit started getting threads from customers who said they’d be leaving Apex Legends for good as a result of the weekend’s exchange. “Ass-hat” also became something of a meme in the community.

While there were others in the community who sympathized with the Respawn developers’ position, and admits others in the community may have gone too far, it was still a high-tension situation in the Apex Legends community.

Taken out of context, the comments sparked a furious response on social media by onlookers who believe that game developers shouldn’t speak to their fans that way. Zampella said that Respawn developers received some unfair attacks from players, but nonetheless apologized to those offended by the responses from the team.

Zampella wrote:

“Having an open, healthy relationship with our community is incredibly important to all of us at Respawn,” “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“

This isn’t the first time an online verbal confrontation between a developer and a game community led to consequences.