Apex Legends Dev Fired For ‘Racist And Sexist’ Comments

Apex Legends has long been the champion of representation in the gaming world. Acting as another bold step away from the norm of generic protagonists that have permeated gaming for so long, the title’s roster of playable legends are diverse - and all the better for it.

Respawn is clearly dedicated to making sure that everyone can see themselves in the game’s heroes, and it has now been made clear that when that mission is threatened by their staff, further action needs to be taken.

Was the Apex Legends’ Lead Designer sacked For 'Racist And sexist' remarks?

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Apex Legends’ lead designer Daniel “Zenon” Klein has been fired from the Respawn team after some sexist and racist remarks from his past has resurfaced. The sacking was confirmed by Zenon himself on Twitter, indicating that he was “heartbroken and depressed” about his dismissal.

Klein made derogatory comments about women and African people on his “humour” blog and in conversations with others. In one exchange, he referred to XX chromosomes (the biological designation of the female sex) as “moron chromosomes". Another featured him talking about his African neighbours like animals and saying, “If you feed them, they’ll come back and shit all over the place.”

It's a situation we've seen time and time again in Hollywood and the gaming industry. While the comments made were from 2007, they clearly don't align with Respawn’s ethos. As Apex commentator Thordan Smash has pointed out, Klein was 27 at the time and should likely have known better.

Zenon Responds To His Respawn Termination

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In a tweet thread, Klein has responded to his termination in full, indicating that while Respawn is well within its rights to sack him for his comments, he didn’t believe what he was saying. “I have poured so much energy into becoming a better person since then, and right now I’m just very depressed because it feels I’ll never be able to make up for who I was”, he says.

“I said racist and sexist things, not because I deeply believed any of them, but because I knew I could get a reaction out of people. That does not excuse anything I said; the impact of my words was the same regardless of what I believed.”

It’s clear that Respawn has a zero-tolerance policy for comments like those made by Klein in the past - and with his reputation within League of Legends communities for antagonising the player base when he worked at Riot Games - critics might think his termination was the right call.

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