Apex Legends dev responds to ‘leaked’ lobby area found by players
Unlike other battle royale games, Apex Legends doesn’t have a lobby or ‘waiting area’ where players convene before the match starts, and Respawn have now explained why they chose to scrap it.
In games like PUBG, Blackout and Fortnite Battle Royale, players will spend anywhere between ten seconds to a minute in a lobby area where they can run around, pick up weapons and shoot opponents, while the map loads and players join to make a full game of 100.
Apex Legends is the only battle royale that does not have such a waiting area, but some players have spotted what looks like one thanks to a glitch in the game, prompting questions.
The lobby area in Apex Legends is sometimes visible due to a bug.
Players will recognize this area as the entrance to the training map/firing range, and it appears to be filled with all the players ready to board the dropship.
However, this screen is only visible thanks to a glitch, and typically players never see it, as they instantly enter the match after choosing their legend.
A Respawn programmer explains that initially, they had planned to use this as the waiting area, but since they managed to get loading times down so low, there was no longer any need to have a waiting area at all.
The developer also confirmed that the waiting area was indeed the same location as the training area, explaining: “You start in a little cave and then you head out and slide down to the target range.”
The weapons were all available to use too, like in the training area, but you couldn’t deal damage to other players, similar to other battle royale games’ waiting areas.
Many players were actually disappointed to hear that the lobby area had been scrapped, although obviously having loading times so low that it is unnecessary is a huge achievement for the development team.