Recently, an Apex Legends developer anonymously posted a negative review about their experience with Respawn. The review was posted on the popular website Glassdoor. Glassdoor allows current and former employees to share reviews about companies that they have worked with or are currently working at.
Glassdoor isn't easily accessible to the public as it requires a registered account to log in. However, someone managed to screenshot the post and shared it on Reddit.
The review describes the employee's experience with Respawn during these hard times.
"Mostly every other game company (Epic, Activision, Bungie, etc.) have extended project deadlines and feature/content road maps to accommodate for lower efficiencies and general stresses/anxiety during COVID 19, but not on the Apex project," The review reads. "I feel extremely stressed and burnt out trying to keep our seasonal releases on the same aggressive timeline as pre-shelter in place productivity."
The person who posted the review seems to be taking issue with Respawn not delaying any upcoming events. "Speaking of work from home, other games likes Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and Fortnite have significantly delayed content due to the pandemic. Apex Legends, however, announced the Season 5 delay just a few days before it was scheduled to launch. The content was only pushed back by a week."
The developer further detailed, "[Respawn] have no idea how to do a live service project, which means poor planning decisions and no sizing of work, means we actually have very little idea of how much we can accomplish in a given month."
The developer also went to say that they had to work up to 13 hours a day to meet deadlines while jeopardizing their health and work-life balance.
Since the review went viral on Reddit, several developers have responded to the review. These other employees explained the current situation and sympathized with the anguished developer.
COVID-19 has had a deep impact on various industries and on the lives of just about everybody. Even though most companies have resumed work with some adjustments, this hasn't been the case for everyone.
