The Future of Apex: Exclusive Season 8 Interview

– Season 8 is live and we’re really looking forward to it. Before you dive headfirst into the new – Season , take a look at what might be coming next.

We sat down with the Apex Legends development team to talk about the new “Chaos” theme and the future of the game. As with all interviews in this modern-apocalyptic setting, we sat down for a Zoom chat. Thanks again to the Respawn team for a great chat. Without further ado, let’s get down to business:

Should we expect vehicles on other maps as well, or is this something that will remain exclusive to Olympus?

There’s always that chance. Olympus had to develop specifically for the vehicle and the vehicle was developed for Olympus. We’ve run the vehicle internally on King’s Gorge, we know how that feels, how good it will be, and we’re not deciding to do it yet. Maybe one day.
Will there be new modes in Apex Legends in the future? Arena battles, custom maps, Anong Us in Apex?

Yeah, those are cool ideas, we’ve been talking about all of that internally as well, so we have a lot of stuff we’re working on.

Do you plan on adding a replay system at some point?

We have a huge list of things we want to do and that’s definitely in there somewhere. It just has to be balanced with everything else we want to put out. We’re not announcing anything right now, but….

Will Legends be released every – Season or will there be a point where you reach a ceiling and focus on other features?

We talk about this a lot, in fact we just had a conversation about it a few days ago. We keep asking ourselves this, but I feel like we’re pretty far away from the problem of “too many legendaries.” We’re not going to stop anytime soon, we’ve got easily the next year plus of legends that we’re already working on.

It’s a theoretical problem that might come up in the future, if ever.
You guys are always trying to add new things to the game and keep everything fresh. How do you feel about a rival title “borrowing” features from Apex?

It’s hardly an issue, really. The industry is a swarm of ideas, so it would be impossible for me to say that everything we’ve put into the game is the most original thing ever. Every game looks at other games and is inspired by the same other games or movies out there. When you’re working on something, it’s not a big surprise that everyone saw that movie a year ago and an idea from it is now a common thing. That doesn’t bother us.

During the 30-30 repeater reveal, we noticed that a certain hop-up is returning. Is it the Anvil Receiver or something else?

Yes, in – Season 8, the Anvil Receiver is returning. It’s coming back for the Flatline and the R-301, and there’s a bit of method behind that madness. With the 30-30 coming out, we want it to not just be 30-30 battles for the entire time, we want other weapons competing alongside it. Since it’s a legendary hop-up, we’re not worried that it’s going to homogenize the entire 30-30 design range. We’re just giving players more opportunities to compete against the 30-30 and test it against other weapons that are already in the game and let them decide for themselves.

You guys introduced a lot of changes to the ranking system for – Season 8. What was the thought process behind that decision?

The process is to sit down and talk about play and talk about what we want to see. We have goals for and the ranked play – what are the pillars of ranked play, what does it mean for our game, and what do we want to accomplish with ranked play. This – Season we set our sights on a couple of those pillars and decided to take a hard look at them. Those are the health of the game and the quality of matchmaking. In future – Season s you may see some other changes that address the other pillars and other goals we have for ranked play, but this time it was about health and top quality. We’ve listened to a lot of feedback from our pros and players, and we always want to stay in touch and get our game modes in the best possible state.
Do you foresee more tournaments aimed at amateurs in the future?

That would be cool, we would love to see that. We have a competitive division on our team, so they have certain goals in mind. I know we talk about going pro quite a bit, the rankings are there to bring more amateur players to Predator and let them their own path to a team.

We need 20 teams in a match, so if you watch an ALGS match, you’ll see teams you may have never heard of, so these are just people trying to make it to the top.

Did you guys expect Apex Legends to grow so big and so fast? What were the challenges that came up?

Definitely not when we launched. It was a big surprise. We launched without any kind of advertising, so we assumed certain numbers for server capacity and that we would be able to handle so many players. Our simulation was way off. The number of players we wanted to reach in a month, I think the numbers I heard were something like: “It would be cool if we could reach 6 or 10 million in a month.” We were at 15 million after a month. What do we do, how do we keep those players engaged and create enough content quickly?

I think most people saw that in our couple of – Season s, especially the first – Season . We did what we could, we had to figure out how to make a Battle Pass and what the rewards should be and what people want from a Battle Pass. Then with each – Season we get a little bit further and a little bit better at making a live game. In – Season 1, we were thinking about – Season 2, that was it, maybe – Season 3. Now we’re in – Season 8 and already testing – Season 13, we’re way ahead of ourselves. As we get into the third year, we’re just sprinting forward and thinking about how we can make the game better, how we can make it different. We’re thinking about what we want to do in the next ten years or so.

Special thanks to the entire Apex Legends development team, who have all been really wonderful. That’s not all the questions we asked, though. You can read more from Respawn about Apex Legends – Season 8 here:

What is actually… “Apex Legends?

Within 24 hours, “Apex Legends” became the most-watched game on Twitch – after one week, over 25 million people were already playing it. What is the battle royale shooter about?

What is “Apex Legends” about?

Scenario: In a distant future, bandits, adventurers, and outlaws settle their disputes in a sporting contest to the death. The setting is a fertile, industrially developed valley on the edge of the galaxy.

  • Genre: Battle Royale shooter
  • Game modes: survival battle between a maximum of 20 teams of three.

At its core, “Apex Legends” is a classic battle-royale shooter: up to 60 players land simultaneously in teams of three on the game map called “Kings Canyon” – a densely built-up, fertile valley with many accessible houses, bunkers and towers. Once on the ground, unarmed players must search their surroundings for equipment and ammunition. The goal of the game is to stay alive until the end.

To prevent players from hiding all over the map and waiting to automatically be the last one left, the game area shrinks every few minutes. The longer a round lasts, the smaller the area where survivors can move and hide.

Apex Legends refreshes this now classic game formula with some ideas that are unique to the genre: For example, before starting a round, players select one of eight heroes, each of which has two special abilities and facilitates certain play styles.

Bangalore, for example, is the classic soldier who can conceal her position with smoke grenades and call in an artillery strike in an emergency. The heroine Lifeline, on the other hand, can summon a drone to heal teammates – or directly order the delivery of high-value weapons and equipment via aerial drone. This way, all players can find the right hero for their preferred course of action.

How can I play Apex Legends?

Platform: “Apex Legends” is available for PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.

Price: The battle royale shooter is a “Free to Play” title and can basically be played for free on all platforms.

In-game purchases: “Apex Legends” allows the purchase of cosmetic items and new heroes either by means of in-game currency, which can be earned for free in every round, or with real money. The real-money currency “Apex Coins” can be purchased in five different amounts: The smallest possible amount is 1000 Apex Points for around 9.99 euros, while the largest pack with 10,000 Apex Points content costs 99.99 euros.

The developer emphasizes that it is not possible to buy game advantages with the help of real money: You can only use it to customize the appearance of the heroes, it says, or purchase new heroes.

Age rating: “Apex Legends” does not have a youth rating (USK 18).

Which technical terms should you know?

Respawn Beacon: If a player is shot down, the team members who are still alive have the opportunity to bring the fallen comrade back into the game: Each eliminated player leaves behind a so-called Respawn Banner, which can be collected by the players of the own team and handed in at one of 28 Respawn Beacons, certain on the map. If this succeeds, the fallen player returns to the game.

Jumpmaster: At the beginning of the game, one of the maximum three players of a team always takes on the role of the jumpmaster. He decides when and where his team enters the game area.

Ping: Using the middle mouse button, players can alert their teammates to interesting locations in the game world or enemies. These pings are a valuable tool for communicating quickly and efficiently within the team.

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