Respawn emphasises its no crunch policy

Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier took a stance against crunch, saying Respawn refuses to overwork the team in order to deliver content quicker.

The Apex Legends development team did a Reddit AMA earlier this week, which included several questions about the game's recently updated battle pass system, which required more grind than previous iterations.

One user commented to say that Respawn had been "extremely slow with content," accusing the team of being "scared of implementing" limited time modes.

Grenier replied explaining their strategy when it comes to limited time modes, saying that they are usually only popular for a couple of days, meaning doing two weeks LTMs is not "necessarily the right format."

He added: "We also refuse to crunch the team, so we'll probably be slower at making content than if we worked 15 hour days but that's just not something we're willing to do. We have nearly doubled our team size since launch to accommodate the content demands, so we're really trying to bring you quality content at a healthy pace."

Back in July, an anonymous employee claimed that the studio was crunching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Back then, Grenier also reacted on Reddit, highlighting the difficulty to spot crunch when everyone is working from home.

"It's not like we can actually see these people in the office late hours, that's why at some point if you're working too much you have to speak up or else nobody knows," he said. "Our team is very close, like a family. There is no fear or losing your job and no crunch culture, and we are open and honest with each other all the time and never avoid difficult conversations."

He added: "Sometimes when you have hundreds of employees you're going to occasionally have an upset one despite making our best efforts. This person decided to write a review online instead of talking to their peers or manager first which is unfortunate."