Metroid Prime Developers Criticise Remaster for Not Crediting Original Team

Two developers who worked on the original Metroid Prime have criticised the newly released remaster for not fully crediting the original creative team.

Zoid Kirsch, who formerly worked for Retro Studios as Senior Gameplay Engineer on the original Metroid Prime, posted a screenshot from the remaster’s credits to Twitter.

The message, which appears right at the very end of Metroid Prime Remaster’s credits roll, reads: “Based on the work of Metroid Prime (original Nintendo Gamecube and Wii versions) development staff”. No full credits for the original development team are included; only those who took part in the creation of the remaster are credited in full.

“While many studios did amazing work on the remaster, I’m let down Metroid Prime’s Remaster does not include the full original game credits,” said Kirsch. “I worked with so many amazing people on the game and everyone’s name should be included in the remaster, not just a single card like this.”

Kirsh’s comment was followed up by Jack Mathews, former tech lead on the Metroid Prime series at Retro Studios. “This is a travesty,” he said. “Not just for my credit (even though most of my code was probably replaced), but for people whose code and work are largely unchanged, like Mark HH, Steve McCrea, all of the uprezzed art and concepts, the game design. Shameful.”

The issue of remakes and remasters not crediting the original developers is not a new one. Shadow of the Colossus and the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Triology remakes are just two examples of games that have not provided full credit to the original teams.

The issue of credit goes much wider, too. Only last month The Last of Us co-creator Bruce Straley spoke about his lack of credit on the HBO show, and noted it may be a reason for unionisation.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

UK Daily Deals: Get Hogwarts Legacy for Just £36.99 When Buying a PS5

Hogwarts Legacy is already taking the world by storm, and you may be wondering how you could possibly get in on the action. Well, have no fear, we’ve got some excellent deals for you that will open up the Wizarding World to you right now. Our headline deal today is the PS5 with Hogwarts Legacy Bundle for just £516.98 at Argos. Overall that works out at £479.99 for the PS5, and just £36.99 for Hogwarts Legacy, about £23 off the new game already.

This is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a new-gen console but still wants to play the game right now! If you’re more interested in Xbox, don’t worry, I’ve got deals there as well, as you can pick up an Xbox Series X console and Hogwarts for just £479.99 from Smyths at the moment, or an Xbox Series S bundle for just £279.99 from GAME. For even more gaming deals, check out all the links just below, or follow @IGNUKDeals on Twitter for more instant updates.

TL;DR – Best UK Deals Right Now

Amazon Hogwarts Legacy Console Bundle Deals

If you are buying the Argos bundle, make sure to just click the ‘Money Off Bundles’ section which will take you to all the current bundle offers Argos has got, including the new Hogwarts Legacy deal. See our full 9/10 review for the game here.

Best Gaming Deals for PS5, Xbox, and PC Right Now

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Best Random Deals I Love Right Now

These are the best deals that I want to highlight, but can’t necessarily fit anywhere else.

Amazing Discounts on Anker Tech Right Now

There’s some great deals on Anker headphones, USB cables and more at Amazon right now. My favourite is definitely on the Soundcore Q45 Adaptive Noise Cancelling Headphones, dropping down to just £97.99. This is a great option for an affordable but amazing set of headphones (instead of dropping £300 on a Bose or Sony set).

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Amazing Password Manager Deal from Keeper (AD)

With Keeper, you can store all of your passwords, credit card info, and other sensitive data in one secure, encrypted digital vault. Plus, they use top-notch encryption technology to keep your stuff safe and have added bonus features like password generation, password sharing, and two-factor authentication.

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Where to Preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the UK

The best Tears of the Kingdom (or Breath of the Wild 2 as many of us called it for years) preorder deal in the UK is still at Hit for £49.85, or ShopTo for the same price. In case you’re wondering, both ShopTo and Hit are 100% legit UK retailers. We’ve linked out to both of them before, and have had no complaints! I’ll leave all the relevant links down below for Tears of the Kingdom preorders.

Where to Preorder Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition and Amiibo

Preorders for the Collector’s Edition are currently sold out everywhere, including Smyths, GAME, and ShopTo. Amazon currently has a listing up, but has not gone live with it yet.

You can also register your interest in the Collector’s Edition, or the Link – Tears of the Kingdom amiibo (£12.99) from Nintendo right now in the UK. Otherwise, follow and set notifications on for @IGNUKDeals on Twitter as we’ll tweet when more preorders go live.

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Awesome PS5 1TB SSD for £83.72 (Great Deal)

Pick up the perfect PS5 1TB SSD for just £85.51 right now, or upgrade even further and drop £185 on a 2TB SSD instead (that works out at £92.50 per TB).

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Metroid Prime Remastered Is Now on Nintendo Switch

After years of rumors, Metroid Prime Remastered is real. If that wasn’t exciting enough, Nintendo has already released the game digitally. But, if you’d prefer to wait for a physical copy, it’s out on March 3, 2023, and can be preorder right now from the links below.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Psychonauts 2’s Making-Of Documentary Is Now Available to Everyone for Free

Double Fine PsychOdyssey, the 32-part, 20+ hour documentary that chronicles the development of Psychonauts 2, is now available for free for everyone on YouTube.

Double Fine PsychOdyssey was created by 2 Player Productions and Double Fine and follows a similar and equally as wonderful documentary that was released for Double Fine’s Broken Age. It’s an extensive, very rare look behind the curtain of game development and you can check it out now by clicking here.

“Ten years after the release of their flagship video game Psychonauts, Double Fine Productions returns to its most celebrated franchise with Psychonauts 2,” The official description reads. “Now facing the pressure to produce a worthy sequel, the studio must confront overly ambitious designs, poor morale, technical challenges and financial woes, all during a turbulent span of time for the world.

“Double Fine PsychOdyssey is the direct continuation of the acclaimed series Double Fine Adventure, and offers even deeper insight into the passion, humor, and heartbreak of video game development.”

The team at Double Fine also noted that Double Fine PsychOdyssey took six years to make and was created from thousands of hours of footage.

In our review of Psychonauts 2, which was released in August 2021, we said, “It may bring a bit of that mid-2000s action-platformer clunkiness along with it, but Psychonauts 2 is still just about everything I could have hoped for from a sequel to one of my favorite games.”

For more, check out 37 things we learned from another great documentary about the making of 2018’s God of War, all the details on Double Fine founder Tim Schafer’s induction into the AIAS Hall of Fame, and our chat with Schafer on Psychonauts 2’s success, the future of the company, and more.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Hi-Fi Rush Has an Easter Egg That Very Well May Be Teasing The Evil Within 3

An Easter Egg on a screen near the end of Hi-Fi Rush very well may be teasing The Evil Within 3.

As reported by GamesRadar, this screen in question is visible for less than a second during a cinematic that plays before Track 11: The Needle Drop and takes place in an elevator. You can see the screen in the image below or in action courtesy of YouTuber Shirrako, and can see, on the bottom, it says, “Sequel to popular survival horror game franchise announced.”

Now, this could just be a fun nod to The Evil Within and not the tease of an announcement, as there are other Easter Eggs to the franchise in Hi-Fi Rush, including robots who look just like Sebastian Castellanos and Joseph Oda. That being said, it is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of moment and could be a fun thing for fans to find and start theorizing about.

Uncharted 3 did something similar when it included a newspaper that teased The Last of Us. That particular Easter Egg was actually not meant to make it to the final game, so it will be interesting to see what the true story is behind this one.

Tango Gameworks released The Evil Within 2 in 2017 and, in our review, we said, “Although a disjointed plot and weak protagonist make it slow to get started, being pursued through an intriguingly bizarre world by plentiful and disturbing monsters kept my palms sweaty and my heart in my throat thanks to a strict adherence to the most important survival horror rule: you should always be on the back foot.”

It could well be time for a new entry in The Evil Within franchise and it would keep the momentum going for Tango Gameworks after it took the world by storm with the shadow drop of Hi-Fi Rush.

For more, check out our Hi-Fi Rush review and our interview with the game’s director (who actually directed The Evil Within 2!).

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Witcher 3 Next-Gen Accidentally Included Some NSFW Community Mods

Warning: This article contains some NSFW references.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that certain NSFW community mods were accidentally added to The Witcher 3’s next-gen update and that it is working to remove them from the game.

As reported by Kotaku, Reddit users and other players began noticing that certain characters, including the “crones from Crookback Bog and the bruxas (the only women NPCs that regularly do full-frontal without any obscuring shots or panties) have landing strip-styled pubic hair and visible labia.”

Also noted by Kotaku, the original version of The Witcher 3 had the same nudity, but the women had “no visible genitals, just a sort of smoothed over, Barbie doll area.”

CD Projekt Red commented on the matter and stated this was a byproduct of bringing in a ton of community-sourced mods not created by the studio into The Witcher 3 and was “unintended.”

“The next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features several community-sourced mods not created by CD PROJEKT RED, on top of numerous enhancements created and implemented by the studio internally,” CD Projekt Red said. “Merging everything together was a complex process and the textures in question are an unintended result present in the release version. This is something we are working to address.”

The team followed up and said the mods in question will be removed in the future as “these textures were not meant to be present in the release version of the game.”

For more on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s next-gen update, check out why we believe its changes signal good things for the series’ future, the biggest changes in the update, and our full PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S vs PS4 performance review.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

EA Strikes Big Money Deal With English Premier League After Losing FIFA Name

EA Sports is reportedly on the verge of agreeing to a new six-year deal with the English Premier League worth some £488 million — a contract said to be worth more than double the value of the original deal.

Sky Sports reports that clubs were briefed on the deal on Friday, which is expected to bring in more than £80 million annually. In return, EA will retain the rights to some of the most popular teams in the world, including Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool.

The new deal reflects the strength of the EPL, which has grown into the most profitable league in the world thanks to its lucrative television deals. It has made the EPL an international powerhouse, allowing it to steal away major stars like Erling Haaland.

The EPL’s brand recognition makes it a major catch for EA, which recently lost the FIFA license after the group reportedly asked for some $1 billion. In addition to changing the name for the first time in nearly 30 years, EA Sports FC will lose access to the World Cup. However, EA has signed deals with hundreds of teams and athletes, as well as more than 30 leagues, allowing it to retain real-world names and venues.

This gives it a valuable edge over Konami’s eFootball series, which has signed valuable deals with clubs including Barcelona, Manchester United, and Inter Milan, but otherwise lags well behind EA’s soccer juggernaut in terms of licenses.

The FIFA series, now renamed EA Sports FC, has been a juggernaut for EA, raking in billions of dollars thanks to its heavily-monetized FIFA Ultimate Team mode. It has allowed EA to remain profitable even as its traditional releases have slowed.

Our review of FIFA 23 called it a “bombastic swan song for the series” but criticized its lack of attention to modes outside of FUT.

“EA’s Spartan approach to the modes that don’t make money ensures FIFA 23 is an all-too-familiar beast to previous years, and Ultimate Team’s offensive focus on microtransactions continues to take much of the fun out of it,” we wrote.

EA claims that the lack of licensing restrictions will offer the series more creative freedom. We’ll be able to see for ourselves when EA Sports FC launches later this year.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Destiny 2: Where Is Xur Today? Location and Exotic Items for February 10-14

The weapons wizard, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he’s got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We’ve rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr Today?

Xûr’s location today can be found at Watcher’s Grave on Nessus on February 10 through February 14. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Watcher’s Grave. When you arrive, make for the red moss-covered tree straight ahead. Climb up the roots and you’ll find Xûr waiting at the top to sell you exotic items and legendary weapons.

What Is Xûr Selling This Weekend?

Exotic Engram

Suros Regime – Exotic Auto Rifle

Knucklehead Radar – Exotic Hunter Helmet

  • 13 Mobility
  • 3 Resilience
  • 17 Recovery
  • 21 Discipline
  • 2 Intellect
  • 6 Strength
  • Total: 62

Ursa Furiosa – Exotic Titan Gauntlets

  • 19 Mobility
  • 10 Resilience
  • 2 Recovery
  • 16 Discipline
  • 13 Intellect
  • 2 Strength
  • Total: 62

Starfire Protocol – Exotic Warlock Chest Armor

  • 19 Mobility
  • 11 Resilience
  • 4 Recovery
  • 16 Discipline
  • 7 Intellect
  • 9 Strength
  • Total: 65

Starfire Protocol is definitely the champion this week, although as exotic rolls go, it’s not particularly spikey or impressive. Pick it up if you need a good solar exotic for you Warlock though!

Exotic Weapons

Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon

  • Paracausal Shot
  • Polygonal Rifling
  • Alloy Magazine
  • Quickdraw
  • Smooth Grip

Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle

  • Cranial Spike
  • Chambered Compensator
  • Steady Rounds
  • Outlaw
  • Composite Stock

Both of the rolls for these two awesome weapons this week are just alright. Probably a pass unless you need one for some reason!

Legendary Weapons

Hollow Words – Fusion Rifle

  • Hammer-Forged Rifling/Polygonal Rifling
  • Enhanced Battery/Particle Repeater
  • Under Pressure
  • Vorpal Weapon
  • Charge Time Masterwork

Ignition Code – Grenade Launcher

  • Countermass/Smart Drift Control
  • Blinding Grenades/Proximity Grenades
  • Field Prep
  • Demolitionlist
  • Reload Speed Masterwork

Dire Promise – Hand Cannon

  • Crossfire HCS/Sureshot HCS
  • Appended Mag/High Caliber Rounds
  • Triple Tap
  • Osmosis
  • Stability Masterwork

IKELOS_HC_V1.0.3 – Hand Cannon

  • Full Bore/Polygonal Rifling
  • Extended Mag/Flared Magwell
  • Rapid Hit
  • Golden Tricorn
  • Rasputin’s Arsenal
  • Stability Masterwork

Threaded Needle – Linear Fusion Rifle

  • Corkscrew Rifling/Extended Barrel
  • Enhanced Battery/Projection Fuse
  • Clown Cartridge
  • Frenzy
  • Reload Speed Masterwork

Lonesome – Sidearm

  • Hammer-Forged Rifling/Smallbore
  • Ricochet Rounds/Flared Magwell
  • Graverobber
  • Demolitionist
  • Range Masterwork

Brass Attacks – Sidearm

  • Corkscrew Rifling/Polygonal Rifling
  • Armor-Piercing Rounds/High-Caliber Rounds
  • Threat Detector
  • One For all
  • Reload Speed Masterwork

My top pick this week is the Ikelos hand cannon with a delightful set of perks that could be quite spicy in PvE and PvP. Some other contenders include the Ignition Code grenade launcher with Field Prep and Blinding Grenades, as well as Threaded Needle with Frenzy and Clown Cartridge. We got some pretty darn good rolls this week!

Warlock Legendary Armor

For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Anti-Extinction set which include:

Anti-Extinction Gloves

  • 20 Mobility
  • 2 Resilience
  • 7 Recovery
  • 10 Discipline
  • 12 Intellect
  • 12 Strength
  • Total: 63

Anti-Extinction Chest Armor

  • 2 Mobility
  • 16 Resilience
  • 12 Recovery
  • 9 Discipline
  • 14 Intellect
  • 8 Strength
  • Total: 61

Anti-Extinction Helmet

  • 2 Mobility
  • 22 Resilience
  • 8 Recovery
  • 2 Discipline
  • 6 Intellect
  • 22 Strength
  • Total: 62

Anti-Extinction Leg Armor

  • 15 Mobility
  • 2 Resilience
  • 14 Recovery
  • 2 Discipline
  • 14 Intellect
  • 14 Strength
  • Total: 61

Anti-Extinction Bond

The gloves for Warlocks aren’t bad, but nothing to write home about. Aside from that, it’s a fairly underwhelming week for our wizard friends.

Titan Legendary Armor

For Titans, Xûr is selling the Anti-Extinction set which include:

Anti-Extinction Gauntlets

  • 6 Mobility
  • 12 Resilience
  • 14 Recovery
  • 11 Discipline
  • 20 Intellect
  • 2 Strength
  • Total: 65

Anti-Extinction Chest Armor

  • 12 Mobility
  • 9 Resilience
  • 10 Recovery
  • 6 Discipline
  • 10 Intellect
  • 15 Strength
  • Total: 62

Anti-Extinction Helmet

  • 7 Mobility
  • 20 Resilience
  • 6 Recovery
  • 11 Discipline
  • 10 Intellect
  • 9 Strength
  • Total: 63

Anti-Extinction Leg Armor

  • 30 Mobility
  • 2 Resilience
  • 2 Recovery
  • 21 Discipline
  • 9 Intellect
  • 2 Strength
  • Total: 66

Anti-Extinction Mark

Holy smokes! Titans have an absolutely insane pair of boots for those who want to go *zoooom*. I know it doesn’t fit with the meta, but everyone should buy those. Also, the gauntlets are pretty darn good as well!

Hunter Legendary Armor

For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Anti-Extinction set which include:

Anti-Extinction Grips

  • 14 Mobility
  • 12 Resilience
  • 7 Recovery
  • 6 Discipline
  • 10 Intellect
  • 16 Strength
  • Total: 65

Anti-Extinction Chest Armor

  • 28 Mobility
  • 2 Resilience
  • 2 Recovery
  • 13 Discipline
  • 6 Intellect
  • 12 Strength
  • Total: 63

Anti-Extinction Helmet

  • 16 Mobility
  • 12 Resilience
  • 2 Recovery
  • 14 Discipline
  • 7 Intellect
  • 10 Strength
  • Total: 61

Anti-Extinction Leg Armor

  • 6 Mobility
  • 21 Resilience
  • 2 Recovery
  • 13 Discipline
  • 16 Intellect
  • 2 Strength
  • Total: 60

Anti-Extinction Cloak

Hunters also got one nice roll this week with the beautiful gloves they’ve got available! Not a bad week for Xur!

That’s a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! We got a Strand trailer this week from Bungie. Which new super are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!

For more on Destiny, check out some of the new weapons and gear you can find in The Witch Queen and read about how Sony’s purchase of Bungie fits into its larger plans. You can also check out details on the upcoming Lightfall release date.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

Nintendo Will Determine $70 Price on ‘Case-by-Case Basis’

Nintendo said that it will evaluate the $70 price tag for its games on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, the company clarified that the $70 price for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will not set a precedent for every Nintendo title.

In a statement to Game Informer, Nintendo explained the reasoning behind the higher price for its most anticipated game of 2023 so far. “We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.”

When asked whether the $70 price tag will be the trend for first-party games going forward, Nintendo reiterated, “No. We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis.”

During the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo showed off a brand new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. When preorders for the game appeared shortly after, the updated price tag of $70 was revealed. It also has the highest file size at of any first-party Nintendo game, sitting at 18.2 GB. Hopefully, this means that the amount of content in the game justifies the higher price.

Nintendo is the latest company to join others such as Sony, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts to charge $70 for its newest games. However, it seems like Nintendo is staying true to its case-by-case philosophy for now, as the upcoming Pikmin 4 and Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And The Lost Demon games are still $60.

Nintendo also revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is receiving a new Link amiibo as well as a $130 Collector’s Edition.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Nintendo Admits Switch Sales Unlikely to Continue Growing at the Same Pace

Nintendo has admitted that Switch sales are unlikely to grow at the same pace going forward as the console prepares to enter its seventh year on the market.

Following its financial results being released earlier in February, Nintendo shared the English version of its investors Q&A session which revealed that the Switch’s best selling year might be behind us.

“Nintendo Switch is coming up on its seventh year of sales in March, and we see this as uncharted territory in the history of our dedicated video game platforms,” said Nintendo director and president Shuntaro Furukawa. “Under these circumstances it is hard to imagine that hardware sales will continue to grow at the same pace they have to date.

“Nintendo is still hopeful that sales could increase, however, through the launch of new games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or from customers buying a second console.

“There are titles under development for Nintendo Switch, and new titles will continue to be proposed going forward,” Furukawa said.

“We are seeing both new demand and multiple system demand for the hardware, so we think there is still room for growth in sales. To that end, we want to maintain a high level of engagement with the hardware and create new demand not only by releasing new titles but also by working further to convey the appeal of existing titles.”

No console since the original NES, which launched in Japan in 1983 and wasn’t surpassed until the SNES launched in 1990, had been on the market for seven years. Nintendo hardware usually remains the company’s premiere option for five or six years.

The console is certainly performing well for Nintendo, however, as it’s now surpassed 122 million units sold and become the third best selling console of all time. As Nintendo noted, the upcoming launch of Tears of the Kingdom will also likely cause a spike in sales, even despite the $10 price increase.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Future of Apex Legends

This week’s Unlocked column is a little different. As a seasoned Apex Legends player, I’ve been playing the game ever since it was released. With its biggest update ever on the horizon, I spoke with the developers to see what’s in store.

Apex Legends turns four this year and ever since it hot-dropped on February 4th 2019, it’s held its ground as one of the best battle royales in the market. It set the bar for mechanics every battle royale should have, such as the intricate ping system, resurrection for eliminated teammates, and Evo armor that evolves into higher tiered protection as you do more damage. But Apex has had its ups and downs since launch.

In recent seasons it’s been very apparent that Apex needed an overhaul to its game to keep up with the four years of Legends, weapons, and map updates poured into it. The community called for a season health update for Apex to match the seasonal updates applied to Fortnite, where the game would be taken offline over a few days to have massive quality of life changes implemented before being restored.

While Apex Season 16 Revelry isn’t forcing the game offline for a few days, it is providing a huge overhaul to how it’s played, most notably with the rework of Legend Classes that now give different exclusive gameplay perks to each one. This completely changes how you play as specific Legends, as any Control Legend can now scan the Ring Console to see the next circle location on the map as opposed to giving that ability to Recon Legends.

Season 16 will almost be like learning a new game of Apex. Not only does it feature the Class System rework but Revelry also brings in new Legend balancing and weapon changes. While Legend and Weapon tweaks usually happen between season launches, Revelry’s system is being retouched to reflect just how big Apex has gotten over the years.

In light of the new season, I spoke with Apex Legends’ Game Director Steven Ferreira and Design Director Evan Nikolich to discuss the future of the game.

Stella Chung: Did you ever expect Apex would be what it is now after Respawn shadow dropped it four years ago?

Steven Ferreira: Well you always hope, but we definitely didn’t know what we were in store for. I think that was definitely a learning curve. It still is today, honestly. I wouldn’t say that we know exactly what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it all the time.

We make plans, but really it’s influenced by players and what’s happening in the live game. That is really what steers the ship to a certain extent. We have goals and things that we set out for, and there’s obviously lead times to getting content out in the game, but generally a big part of a live game is reacting to how players are playing the game. And so we can’t make a plan that sees out into the future too far because we always have to have some wiggle room to be able to adapt to how players are playing the game.

One of the things I enjoy about a live game is we get to surprise players on a regular basis

So it’s been a great ride. Super exciting and fun. And that’s one of the best things, is there’s just been surprises along the way. And it’s one of the things that I really enjoy about a live game is that we get to try and surprise players on a regular basis and vice versa, we get surprised by how players react to the content and what they do with the game.

Stella Chung: Apex is having a huge rework after four years. How did you come about this decision?

Evan Nikolich: When I joined the team just over a year ago, we were taking a look holistically at the game. And some of the most immediate feedback I got, particularly from the Legends team, is that there was this constant pace of adding a new legend, new legend, new legend…

They recognized all these old legends had opportunities to improve and grow, but weren’t given the chance because of the cadence of delivering new legends. My proposal was, “Why can’t we pause adding a new legend for one season? And if you got that opportunity, what would you do?” Then we came back with the pitch of ‘rework all the legend classes’. We’d add a new class and would make them actually live a class fantasy instead of just being an icon on the portrait, which is what it basically became.

We’re leaning into this philosophy about evolving the game and building this everlasting hobby people can play for years to come

So we worked through multiple prototypes, multiple pitches, to take the things people already know and love about Apex and level them up. We’re leaning into this philosophy about evolving the game and building this everlasting hobby people can play for years to come. And yes, part of that is adding new content.

We’ll have more content coming season after season, but it’s also bringing existing content up to date, to how players are playing with it; meeting that challenge and then driving players to play in new, interesting ways.

Steven Ferreira: Part of it came from the players and a lot of the feedback we’ve been getting from the community is that the game has been getting harder and harder. And obviously, adding new content to the game isn’t going to generally fix that.

What we have to do is look at the game holistically and look back at what we’ve released over the last four years and think about how we can change the systems, to both increase the level of competition and increase the ceiling for players who have been with us for the last four years and have gotten better and better. At the same time, there’s a ton of new players joining all the time and we want to make sure they have as fun an experience onboarding and getting into that level of competition as everyone else had over the last four years.

Stella Chung: So how long has this overhaul been in development for?

Steven Ferreira: We really kicked it off in earnest last year, working in different pieces. You’re seeing a lot of those [updates] now in the upcoming season of Revelry, but you’re going to see more over the next few seasons this year.

There’s a long tail on some of it and it takes time for us to develop, and some is dependent on many pieces. The legend classes is an example of that. The changes were not something we really wanted to drip feed to the legends themselves. We wanted to make sure we had those changes ready to go as a package, so that when we put it into the game, it actually had an impact on the experience.

That’s really a key part of how we’re looking at a lot of these changes over this coming year of seasons – we’re going to be putting stuff into the game we feel has an impact, which means that sometimes the formula and the expectations of a given season won’t be the same. I hope that, like I said earlier, we’ll be able to surprise players throughout the year.

Stella Chung: This is Respawn’s first live service game. I know in the beginning it was very overwhelming, so how has the team learned to evolve a live service game over the last four years now?

Evan Nikolich: Part of the reason I was hired is I had a lot of live service experience coming from working on Destiny and Destiny 2. So I took a lot of lessons from there. One of the big lessons was focusing on evolving the core, evolving the hobby, evolving the systems. For me, I was excited to jump onto a competitive game like Apex because at its core it was so solid, so it was all about ‘now how do we build out that core?’

The biggest lessons I’ve learned over the last year is how do we talk to the community? How do we listen to them, find out their needs? The community says a lot about what it wants but really it’s picking apart what they need. And part of that response is evolving the legend classes and the onboarding systems and things of that nature.

The community says a lot about what it wants but really it’s picking apart what they need. 

Those are some of the big lessons we’ve focussed on and we’re finally displaying them now in this coming season. It’s been hard, particularly last season when people were like, “Ah, there’s no meta changes…” And I was like, “It’s coming! We’re almost there and now’s the time.”

Steven Ferreira: As Evan just said, that’s the core that’s driving the way we’re looking at this. At the end of the day it’s a balancing act of making sure the team remains having fun making the game, and that means we have to balance how much content we put out and that we’re working on things the team actually wants to work on.

One example was the class system. The team was saying, “We love making new legends and want to continue to do that, but we’re also really invested in the content we’ve already made and want to be working on that.” So we listen to what the team’s excited and passionate about, and what the community’s excited and passionate about, and find a balance. How much can we do in a given season and make sure the team is doing that in a healthy way, and in a way that keeps them engaged and passionate about the game and having fun, because at the end of the day I think that’s how Apex came to be.

That means that sometimes it’s a challenge to find the balance. That’s an ongoing thing we do day after day and we’ll continue to grow in order to accomplish all the things we want to do. The team has so many things it wants to work on. We can’t get to it all and we can’t do it in the timeframes we have season over season, so we look at the long game. Like I said, we can’t look too far ahead because the nature of the live experience will end up steering that on its own, but we do need to look ahead nonetheless.

Stella Chung: You speak about these challenges. What would you say is the biggest challenge with keeping up with the live service game?

Steven Ferreira: The cadence of release is a challenge. With most, let’s say ‘traditional non live games’, there’s anywhere from a year to a couple of years of development, in which you go through pre-production and start to figure everything out. Then the game starts to gel and you begin play testing, and start getting some early views from the community. Then, around release, there’s an intense peak of development before you have a break after the end. We don’t have the luxury of those peaks and valleys, and everything is condensed into a very short amount of time. We’re effectively releasing every six weeks, putting something out into the live game.

That itself is a challenge, but it’s also part of the ingredients of making the game great. I wouldn’t change that for the world, and I think we have a sweet spot of seasonal releases that allows us just enough time to build the things we want to build. It also allows us to stay connected to the community on a regular enough basis that we’re getting live feedback and adapting the game. So I don’t see us changing that cadence anytime soon and I’m excited to continue evolving the game over the long term using that model.

We want Apex to last for 20 years, like Counter-strike. It has to be self-sufficient and stand on its own

Stella Chung: Do you think there will ever come a point where Apex will stop releasing new legends or weapons? Because that legend screen is getting pretty crowded.

Evan Nikolich: There definitely is a point. We’re not close to it, I don’t think, but there is a point where you reach a point of saturation when new legends don’t add anything. You can see that in some of the big MOBAs like League and Dota. Every time they add a hero, it dilutes the pool. They don’t get played as much.

We want Apex to last for 20 years, like Counter-strike. It has to be self-sufficient and stand on its own. The systems have to be strong and interesting and good for players to play season over season, even if we’re not adding new, bespoke content. But there’ll always be some attending there in terms of creating interesting choices, creating interesting challenges and shifting the rule set to build the healthiest game.

If you look at some of the most established sports in the world, they’ve been around for 100-plus years. Basketball is my favorite game and it has evolved a lot in just 100 years. With Apex, we’re in the early, first five years of basketball where there’s no shot clock, no three-point line, all that stuff. And we’re slowly moving to what we know in the NBA game today.

Stella Chung: Is that still something Apex is trying to do, to expand outside of the battle royale? Or is the focus now back on battle royale?

Steven Ferreira: The focus is definitely on Battle Royale. We believe Apex, as a core experience, has a lot of potential within the battle royale, and that’s what you saw with some of the bigger modes we’ve done as LTMs leading up to this season. Things like Control, things like Gun Run, like Team Deathmatch… then packaging all of that together into a mixtape players can play all the time. That’s how we were looking at that.

We continue to experiment with things and look at different opportunities, but the key to Apex – and a lot of the design around what Apex is and why it works – is built around that Battle Royale experience. So that’ll always be at the heart of Apex, but we will continue to explore and have other Apex experiences outside of the Battle Royal, but they’ll always funnel back into the BR. They’ll be there as a way of either onboarding players or allowing people to get better at a certain element of the game, but it’s always in service of the BR.