In a review posted on Respawn Entertainment's Glassdoor page, a current developer anonymously details his mostly negative experience working at Apex Legends. Glassdoor allows current and former employees and interviewees to post public reviews of what it is like to work or interview at the company.

Since Glassdoor is not widely accessible without an account, a screenshot of the entire post was posted on the Apex Legends Reddit.

The negatives that employees talk about center around Respawn's working conditions during the pandemic, which required developers to work from home.

"While most other game companies (Epic, Activision, Bungie, etc.) extended project deadlines and feature/content roadmaps during COVID 19 in response to reduced efficiency and general stress/anxiety, the Apex project did We did not." Trying to keep the seasonal releases on the same aggressive schedule as productivity before the shelter was installed was very stressful and burned out."

Other games such as Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Final Fantasy XIV all saw significant delays in new content due to the pandemic. For "Apex Legends," however, the Season 5 delay was only announced a few days before launch, and only postponed for a week.

The post further stated that "[Respawn] doesn't know how to do live service projects, i.e., they make poor planning decisions and can't size their workload, which means they really have little idea how much they can accomplish in a given month."

The employee also criticized the maximum 13-hour workday and lack of attention to employee health.

Several developers responded after the post appeared on Reddit; Chad Grenier, head of Apex Legends, wrote a detailed reply, stating: "Suddenly transitioning [to telecommuting] during a pandemic is a real challenge for the team. It took some getting used to. We certainly didn't have the tools, technology, or systems in place to make a smooth transition from a team of several hundred people on the same campus to a studio completely away from them."

Regarding deadlines, Grenier stated. Like a broken record, I kept saying, "If you can't make it if you don't work hard, make it clear to your manager or producer. It doesn't matter if you're late.

Grenier stated that there were delays in content for seasons 4 and 5 and beyond because employees needed time to adjust. Overall, he stated that the change in working conditions during the pandemic was a learning experience that did not go all that well.

While it is commendable that the project director took the anonymous complaints seriously, asking employees to self-report lost productivity is complicated. On the one hand, the leadership asks employees to trust that they have their best interests at heart; on the other hand, Grenier reiterates that "no one wants to disappoint the fans" and that "everyone wants to fix that bug or complete that cool feature." This line of thinking implies certain expectations that developers tend to internalize. A developer who must request a delay is likely to feel that he or she is letting down Apex fans and the team, and as a result may refuse to request more time. Instead, by announcing a company-wide delay, the developer is relieved of that responsibility.

Some gaming companies report a general sense of adjustment to the new conditions, but this is certainly not the case for everyone.