Apex Legends dev responds to complaints about “recycled” LTMs

An Apex Legends developer has responded to players’ complaints about bringing back old LTMs (limited-time modes), rather than adding new ones. His candid response shed some light on why Respawn continues to “recycle” LTMs and the effort that goes into perfecting them.

The debate surrounding Respawn’s continued use of recycled LTMs is not a new one. Certain members of the Apex community continue to voice their issue with the lack of all-new LTMs being added to the game.

Although there are have been numerous different limited-time modes since Apex released in 2019, Respawn brings back fan-favorites such as Armed & Dangerous and Always be Closing on a regular basis.

Although these modes are generally well-liked, some have assumed that they are recycled as a low effort means of adding ‘new’ content. However, senior game designer Daniel Klien has explained the team’s thinking.

Apex dev responds to complaints of “recycled” LTMs

Complaints surrounding LTMs on the Holo-Day Bash announcement thread led to a response from the dev. A number of players had expressed their disappointment that ‘Winter Express’ was just another “recycled” mode.

But, the game designer outlined the amount of effort that had gone into perfecting and reworking the ‘Winter Express’ mode: “between the supply ships and the new stations and a LOT of behind the scenes changes to reduce downtime it feels so much better to me.”

Despite the response, this only led to comments stating that ‘Winter Express’ was still a recycled LTM and that no new content had been added.

• Read more: Apex Legends players angered by Holo-Day Bash skin bundles

This led to an extremely candid statement from the developer that revealed the exact reason Respawn choose to bring back fan-favorite LTMs: “Real talk… everyone ASKS for game modes but looking at our numbers, it doesn’t seem like people play them nearly enough for us to put in the amount of effort required to make a new mode.”

This certainly offers some context to the debate surrounding “recycled” LTMs. If the player numbers don’t justify the resources needed to make a new LTM,  then why would Respawn continue to produce them?

It’s often difficult for developers to grasp what content a player base is looking for. Although social media can be a good indicator, it often only represents those who shout loudest, rather than the entire community.

Respawn devs remain very active and engage with players about issues, so feedback should always be encouraged.