Apex Legends director says Respawn has learned after letting annoying metas “sit around for too long” with faster patches planned for the future

Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends Season 26 has just been announced and major changes are coming, once again, to the free-to-play battle royale game. As with any multiplayer game, this new update will completely overhaul the meta as it introduces new weapons, characters and more to the game.

Season 26 will add a brand-new permanent game mode in the form of Wildcard, which is designed for “more shooting, less looting”, a completely revised E-District and Kings Canyon maps, and new “Amps” that add powerful buffs in the late game.

Apex Legends director on ever-changing metas

While the core of Apex Legends Season 26 is exciting, the main purpose of any new season is to rebelance or even overhaul the in-game meta to bring in new players and continue exciting existing players. In the past, Apex has suffered from annoying metas that stick around too long, and Respawn is keen to fix its past mistakes.

Speaking to VideoGamer in a round table interview ahead of Season 26, design director Evan Nikolich explained that the challenge of balancing the meta is the core of keeping a game like Apex Legends alive.

“The big thing is the balance between having fun, versus staleness, and annoyance,” Nikolich explained. “Like Ash, Ballistic, Alter became very annoying. Like, yeah, it was kind cute for a couple of days but now its just… not fun.”

Nikolich explained that balancing the meta means focusing on what everyone finds fun while also making the game more exciting. A stale meta with little change essentially results in a dead game as there’s nothing left to learn.

“When it becomes very frustrating to fight, we have to fix that,” he continued. “We don’t want to let that pain sit around for too long. I think in the past we’ve made that mistake and just let things ride out.”

Nikolich explained that the team is now more active coming out of Season 25 to directly address annoying metas that stick around longer than a few days. While it’s okay to let everyone have their fun for a short while, leaving those metas around for too long ends up either pushing players away or making the game too stale.

As it stands, Apex Legends Season 26 looks like another fun major update for the battle royale game. Time will tell if the game launches with its own annoying meta, which it most likely will, and how long it’ll take for Respawn to make changes.