It’s hard to deny thatApex Legendshas found its place even in a crowded market. Like other games of its genre, it’s built around satisfying moments like multi-kills, successful escapes, and sweetrevenge against rude players inApex Legends.
It’s also hard to believe thatApex Legendsis only a little over a year old, considering everything added to it. When it first came out, no one was sure what to think ofApex Legends. Fans of theTitanfallseries fell apprehensive about EA birthing a battle royale fromTitanfall’s development company. WhileTitanfall 3is nowhere to be seen, it is clear that a lot of time and effort has gone into makingApex Legendsgood. But sometimes the biggest moment for a game comes from something that has nothing to do with the game at all.
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The story comes from Jon “Slithy” Shiring, a veteran game developer who worked for Respawn duringTitanfallandApex Legends' creations. It relates to a particularly important event for him which almost got shunted aside thanks toApex Legends' launch time. This is not a serious or disturbing story like therevelation of crunch at Respawn. In fact, it relates to something pretty joyful: the adoption of Shiring’s daughter and how it affectedApex Legends.
The release ofApex Legendswas scheduled for the morning of February 4th, 10 AM. At the same time, Shiring was trying to finalize the adoption of his daughter. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, the court set the time he had to be there at 10 AM on February 4th, right whenApex Legendswas launching. Shiring had to be there for the launch to deal with shenanigans likeserver crashes caused by players inApex Legends, or anything else that might have cropped up.
Fortunately, the rest of the Respawn team was willing to make a last-minute adjustment. The official launch of the game got pushed to around lunchtime that day, and Shiring was able to make it. He had to rush there from the court, but in the end, he got to celebrate with his family, finalize his adoption, and oversee the launch. Granted, things didn’t get so bad that first day, butmassive bans against players exploiting glitches inApex Legendslater down the line prove why oversight is always necessary.
These days, Shiring is no longer at Respawn Entertainment. He left to foundGravity Wellalongside Drew McCoy, who got Respawn off the ground. Incidentally, it was McCoy who helped push the time back for Shiring. These two are worth watching for new, exciting games.
Apex Legendsis available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions in development.
