Growing discontent about the playability of Respawn’s battle royale game Apex Legends is prompting conversations in the community about how to emphasize the need for the developer to address issues with the game. These issues include a legend’s ability not working (since fixed), console players not being able to use voice chat, sound delays, opening loot chests to find no visible loot, looking (and sounding) like you’re under a train before jumping off the carrier at the start of the game, and many more issues.
Issues were so bad that a player at Apex Legends’ Global Series, AGS, the first weekend in June held a sign pleading for a character to be fixed. Electronic Arts (EA) spent $2,000,000 on a prize pool alone but had several bugs that rendered some characters unplayable.
Leading up to ALGS, one Reddit post sparked a multi-platform, multi-week discussion on boycotting Apex Legends through August. The original post called for people to not play or spend money on the game. They also asked for this movement to be shared with streamers and friends so that there could be a noticeable dent in the game’s number of players.
While the spirit of this boycott has support, there is pushback saying this is not effective enough. Some have started their boycott earlier or will play but not spend money, and others will be sharing broken parts of the game on social media with #NoApexAugust or a number of other hashtags.
There’s also been criticism of the timing of the boycott lining up with a new season in Apex. Season 13 (Saviors) ends at the start of August, meaning large swaths of the player base will log in during this time just to see what’s new. I’m kinda torn because this can work really well if the demographic that’s normally the money-making boom for the game (season pass holders) participates and cuts into that revenue, but at the same time, that may be overwhelmed by casual players who will buy the pass and not follow Apex conversations online, making it harder for the boycott to become noticeable in the developer’s data.
Additionally, people whose necessary income is tied up in this game, be it sponsored posts for the new season or behind-the-scenes access and play guides, may not be able to participate, even if they’d like to. This group includes streamers, content creators, writers, artists, and more.
Why there’s doubt
Several creators also cited how, after Titanfall players tried to do the same, the first game was pulled, and Titanfall 2 has no support. The last update I could find was in 2019, which is also the year Apex Legends was released. The biggest criticism is that Respawn’s parent company, EA, is notoriously hellish for players. Even condensed, EA has its own criticism page on Wikipedia. Most infamous is their Star Wars micro-transaction fiasco that resulted in inquiries from multiple national governments and an official EA reply becoming the most downvoted comment in Reddit history.
Critics are right in the fact that this is an uphill battle. However, this Apex initiative has grown beyond Reddit, which is what most have been commenting on. Two weeks since that initial Reddit post, the discussion has moved to YouTube and TikTok, gaining 55,000 and 2.8 million views, respectively. Granted, the comments tend to be skeptical and not every person making videos is in support of it, but there are still conversations happening.
Collective organizing is great, but this wasn’t well thought out. There’s no clear list of demands to hold EA accountable. A lack of organizing means that there’s no telling if Respawn will be punished instead of supplied with resources and support to address issues like this—beyond making new in-game content that will break an existing feature. However, I’ll probably participate, if for nothing else but to manage my current inability to log in less than 30 hours a week.
(via Youtube, featured image: Respawn Entertainment, Dark Horse)
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