Respawn calls Apex Legends players 'ass-hats' and 'freeloaders'

Respawn has been swimming in controversy after the pricing debacle with the cosmetic items in its new Iron Crown Collection event, with the Apex Legends developer taking to the Apex Legends subreddit to apologize and answer some questions.

Repsawn staffer and Reddit poster 'dko5' answered some questions, fanning the nuclear fuel that was being boiled around the Apex Legends subreddit. A list of comments by the Apex_Bot is perfect, collating a bunch of dko5's posts that start with: "We're humans, you know, and we will make mistakes".

The posts continue with dko5 saying that Apex Legends is "not a hugely monetizing game - we just need to make enough money to keep the game going and make more stuff for everyone. When we decided to make Apex Legends a free-to-play game it was imperative that free".

Dko5 added: "The reality is that anytime we add something to the game that costs money there is negative feedback. People just want free stuff. We knew that was coming - but what we hadn't fully appreciated was the bond we broke". Noting that Respawn feels like it has broken the bond with Apex players.

But the comments get much juicer than that. There is a list of comments from Respawn that you can go through both here on the Apex Legends subreddit and in the images below:

People aren't happy, with some Redditors like 'xcharybdisx' pointing out: "So just to be clear, you're not apologizing for the outrageous prices, the massive paywall, or the gambling. You're apologizing for not telling us about it first?".

The replies to this post are all on point:

It continues to spiral in the comments section under that, with:

Better yet, 'BlueLantern84' called Respawn's move days before the developer chimed in. The poster explained:

EA isn't new to this screwing-gamers-with-lootbox-controversy schtick... we've been through it with the Battlefield franchise, Star Wars Battlefront franchise, and virtually everything in between. EA is no stranger to controversy, and it seems Respawn is being pushed into the battle now.