Respawn Entertainment, developer of Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, has issued a statement condemning the harassment of its employees. Toxicity within the greater online gaming community has become an all-to-common, and often ignored, occurrence. Due to its popularity and the willingness of developers to interact with players, Apex Legends has become a flashpoint for poor behavior within the battle royale's community. Respawn is unwilling to stay silent on the matter.There's no specific instance of harassment that Respawn appears to be calling out in its statement. That may be intentional, as Respawn is choosing not to call attention to any individual harassers. The statement does make clear that Respawn has seen increased harassment toward developers at the studio. While any harassment is unacceptable, the fact that it's increasing has forced Respawn's hand.Respawn starts its statement by saying that it appreciates community input, but draws a firm line between constructive feedback and harassment. This line "cannot be crossed," says Respawn, condemning the behavior. With that in mind, Respawn says that it has a zero-tolerance policy regarding threats and harassment and that it will take "appropriate action" to ensure its team members' health and safety. Exactly what action Respawn is taking isn't clear, but given the size of Respawn and the resources it has on hand, it's safe to assume it's not an empty promise.
Closing out the statement, Respawn reiterates that there's a difference between harassment and constructive feedback. Respawn says that it loves hearing feedback and that it will continue to work with and communicate with its games' communities. The goal of which is to "foster a respectful, collaborate environment" tied to its games ongoing development. At this point, Respawn does say another of its goals is to "uphold the competitive integrity of our game," which very clearly implies the issue is with regard to Apex Legends and not Respawn's other games.
There's unfortunately no simple answer to addressing harassment in online gaming communities. Respawn can directly address threads and harassment within its own games, but a majority of the behavior happens on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms. Since these platforms have lax harassment policies and large blind spots, there's often little that can be done on a macro level.
What can be done is for game players, whether they play Apex Legends or otherwise, to focus on their own behavior and those of their peers. Being a source of positivity can go a long way, and pushing back against harassment helps encourage others to focus on positivity, too. Everyone deserves to have healthy gaming experiences, both developers and players, but it's going to take work to get there.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and mobile devices.