Developer Reveals Wholesome Reason Apex Legends Released Late
While Apex Legends has carved an impressive legacy for itself since it was first released in February 2019, it turns out there's an adorable reason it didn't drop exactly on time. Releasing any video game is a gauntlet of glitches and kinks that need to be ironed out before it's ready to hit console and PC.
When it comes to battle royale titles, the fact so many players are dropping into the map at once means the issues can quickly mount up. As for Apex Legends, it's two-hour delay wasn't due to any technical issues, but the Lead Programmer adopting his daughter. Former developer Jon Shiring posted on Twitter and shared this heart-warming story about how he put his family first.
"So, the Apex Legends launch was weirdly late in the day – lunchtime PST – evening in Europe. Not when you’d expect", said Shiring. "We had planned it for that morning, and then my court appointment to finalize my adoption came through – the court had picked February 4th at 10am – the same time as the Apex launch. I panicked. Since I ran the ops and online services team for the game, this was bad".
If anyone had wondered why Apex had an unconventional launch time, it was because the Respawn team held off on the launch and waited for Shiring to return so the game could go live and they'd all celebrate together.
Shiring continued, "That’s why Apex launched at a strange time, around lunch on February 4th, 2019. Because Respawn prioritized my family first.”
Work on Apex reportedly started in late-2016/early-2017, however, it was kept under a shroud of mystery right up until launch. Until the very last second, fans thought Respawn Entertainment was working on a third Titanfall game. Instead, developers were hard at work preparing to slash their way into the battle royale scene.
Thankfully, a two-hour delay didn't seem to do much harm or give Apex any more teething problems than your average title. Looking back at the launch, Respawn was on cloud nine when it managed to get over 1,000,000 players to sign up in the first 24 hours.
All these months later - and as we prepare for Season 7 - Apex Legends is more popular than ever. And to think, it was delayed so a developer could adopt his daughter. Awww, it's enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
For more great news on the game we all love, make sure to read up on Apex Legends leaks that reveal Season 7 weapons and character skins
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