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Respawn Entertainment revealed that Forge, the ill-fated hero of Apex Legends Season 4, was never going to be a real Legend; he was only created to “misdirect” dataminers (via Dot Esports).
Imagine this. You’re a developer on a super, super successful live game. Content rolls out every now and then to change up the rules and give your players something to rant and/or rave about. The only thing is, the community keeps digging and digging to find out what’s coming to the game, and “stealing” your surprises. It’s not their fault, they love the game! But, it does throw a wrench in the works of the planned announcements, and arguably they aren’t as impactful as they could have been.
So, Respawn decided to create the character of Forge purely for the purpose of steering dataminers off the scent of the real stuff coming to Apex Legends. “Honestly, it started as a fun way to misdirect data miners who, at the time, felt like they had solved our next legend and had ruined our surprise,” said design director McCord in an interview with Dot Esports. “We actually purposefully leaked fake concept art and details of Forge’s kit in patches, so there would be a bread crumb trail by the time we announced him. It’s pretty insane, really. I can’t think of any other game that has gone through such hijinks.”
The real Legend was Revenant, who fatally stabbed Forge in an interview about the fighter’s arrival to Kings Canyon. It was shocking, and players were buzzing with excitement. The official trailer for Season 4 showed off Respawn’s prowess when it comes to animation, individuality, and narrative, and we got a proper confirmation that Revenant is a nasty piece of work. The robotic assassin is a Simulacrum, which is when the mind of a deceased person is copied to a synthetic shell. Whether Hammond Robotics is truly to blame for his state is debatable, but Forge is definitely “super-dead.” No extra lives here.
Apex Legends is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
