Apex Legends dev responds to requests for Replay Mode with bad news

Calum Patterson
Apex Legends replay mode olympus

One of the most commonly requested features for Apex Legends is replay mode, allowing players to watch back their matches. Unfortunately, Respawn have no plans to add the mode, citing the difficulty vs payoff of such an undertaking.

Unlike some of its battle royale contemporaries like PUBG and Fortnite, Apex Legends does not feature a replay mode. This would allow players to rewatch their matches in full, useful for both spotting mistakes as well as content creation.

However, despite frequent requests, it’s unlikely a replay mode will ever be added, at least according to balance designer John Larson.

Apex Legends trio of characters all with weapons
A replay mode has been a big ask – but it’s maybe too big for the devs to dedicate time to.

No replay mode coming to Apex

Larson appeared on the Apex Uncut podcast, alongside pro player Zach Mazer and content creator The_FortniteGuy, to discuss balancing, upcoming changes, and what it’s like working at Respawn.

During the discussion, the hosts put questions to the developer from the community, one of which simply asked about the possibility of a replay mode.

“That would be quite an undertaking from a dev side of things, and I’m not sure the warrants it, at least at this point in time. So, I would not promise anything on that front.”

Cloud9’s Zach Mazer understood Larson’s argument, but did say that he thought it would be a good addition, if possible. “I think it’s a great idea, if it was easy to make. I think it would be a wonderful idea.”

Players have also asked about the possibility of killcams in the future, which Respawn have been similarly reluctant to add.

Partly because of increased stress on the server and the potential gameplay advantage that could arise from teammates seeing where they were killed and informing their squad.

Unfortunately, because the game wasn’t created with these features in mind, it becomes more difficult for them to be added retroactively. The same can be said for cross-progression, which is still being worked on but is taking a long time, as Apex simply wasn’t built with it in mind.