Lead Apex Legends writer gives insight into lore development and what’s to come
In an interview with GameSpot published on February 5, Apex Legends lead writer (and Ash’s namesake) Ashley Reed discussed how the team keeps the mounting lore straight, and how the story team balances releasing new Legends across seasons. And notably, Reed also gave a bit of insight into how the story of Apex Legends is going to be told going forward.
The most recent lore event in Apex was Kill Code which followed the battle between Loba, Duardo Silva, and Revenant over the latter’s head and memories. Loba wants to use the head to continue punishing Revenant for killing her family, Silva wants to use the head to create an exploitative partnership with the robot, and Revenant wants to have control over himself and his life again.
“You can expect something that’s very like Kill Code over this next year, like an evolution of that,” Reed told GameSpot. “Kill Code was our first, ‘Let’s tell a big story across the full year and have that be a foundation for what’s coming in the game!’ kind of thing. We’re pushing that even further this year.”
According to Reed, Season 20’s story content will more closely follow the actual gameplay of Apex Legends than Kill Code did. Season 19 debuted new Legend Conduit, after all. But this fifth anniversary season doesn’t have a new Legend to introduce, and can instead let us get to know Conduit slowly while also revealing more about other parts of this world.
“We’re tying more of our [gameplay] features coming this year even more closely to the story, and it is meant to be like a full, year-long experience, and Horizon maybe, possibly, is the cornerstone of it.”
But with Duardo confirmed dead, things have to move forward and the lore developments will mirror the in-game trailers and events.
“I think it may not be who you expect,” Reed told GameSpot in regards to the game’s next villain. “That is what I’ll say about that.”
“Writing for a live-service game is a challenge, and I expect it always will be, but solving that puzzle is a big part of what makes the job interesting,” Reed said of her goals for the future of Apex’s story. “When Apex first started, one of our biggest pillars was the characters and what their stories brought to the world. That was something unheard of in the battle royale space at the time. We want to keep iterating and learning and experimenting, so the story can make Apex feel like a unique, rich, living place that you want to keep coming back to.”
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