Apex Legends lead dev wants penalty for early leavers in Arenas

Respawn are looking into ways of improving Apex Legends new Arenas mode, and one of the lead designers echoed community sentiment for having a penalty levied toward early leavers.

Apex players have been wanting penalties against leavers even before Arenas came to the game. Quitters in the battle royale have ruined their fair share of matches in the past, but a leaver in the 3v3 mode is much more apparent.

While there’s still a lot of work to do in developing Arenas, Respawn are willing to see what other changes the player base wants to see – besides the upcoming Ranked playlist, which still doesn’t have a timeline for release.

In opening the floor to the public, Respawn’s lead designer Carlos ‘pinedsman’ Pinedagave his take on what Arenas update he’d like to see in the future.

“So I understand everyone is excited for Ranked Arenas, but what other Arenas updates would you like to see?” Pineda said. “I’ll start: penalty for early leavers”

Members of the Apex community have been exploring ways of how to punish leavers with ideas ranging from implementing an Honor system to paying Legends tokens to exit a match.

• Read more: Apex announces $3m crowdfunding for ALGS Championship

It’s not confirmed there will be penalties for leavers, but seeing one of the top Apex designers acknowledging the need for ‘retribution’ will be reassuring for many.

In a recent Respawn AMA on Reddit, Pineda expanded a bit more about how the Apex Legends developers could “adapt” to leavers, so they’re looking into punishments as well as loss forgiveness for teammates unfortunate enough to have a teammate abandon.

“Much like you, we hate when people leave early so we are definitely looking into leaver penalties and loss forgiveness for Arenas,” Pineda said.

• Read more: How to get Apex Legends Mirage Edition

This will be a much-needed change not only for Apex players that leave their team at a disadvantage, but also people who get stuck in losing situations.