Apex Legends launched a few hours late back in February 2019. Former Respawn lead programmer Jon Shiring had a court date to finalize his daughter’s adoption at the same time the battle royale was supposed to be released.
Filed the voluminous paperwork to finalize my daughters adoption today. Reminded me of the last time I was at that courthouse here in LA.
So, the Apex Legends launch was weirdly late in the day – lunchtime PST – evening in Europe. Not when you’d expect.
— ░〚GW〛 Jon 'slothy' Shiring ░ (@jonshiring) October 8, 2020
“We had planned it for that morning, and then my court appointment to finalize my adoption came through – the court had picked February 4th at 10am – the same time as the Apex launch, I panicked,” Shiring, who left Respawn in March to start a new game studio, tweeted. “Since I ran the ops and online services team for the game, this was bad.”
@DKo5 and everyone else at @Respawn actually pushed the secret game launch time back so I could get to my court hearing, then race back to the office and manage the launch with @thezilch and @mike_durn, and celebrate with the team.
It was an amazing morning for me and my family!
— ░〚GW〛 Jon 'slothy' Shiring ░ (@jonshiring) October 8, 2020
Shiring said that other members of the development team pushed the launch time back by several hours so he could make it to his appointment and then race back to the office. The launch was scheduled for 10 am PT but happened at 12 pm PT. “It was an amazing morning for me and my family,” Shiring said. “That’s why Apex launched at a strange time … because Respawn prioritized my family first.”
Apex Legends has received a few changes this month, including the addition of cross-play and the removal of Wraith’s iconic Naruto run.