Even back when Apex Legends launches in 2019, there were many who keenly felt its technical deficiencies, brought on in large part by the fact that the game was built on the outdated Source engine. And though there are many in the free-to-play battle royale shooter’s community who’ve been hoping for an engine upgrade for a while, it doesn’t seem like that’s something that developer Respawn Entertainment is planning on.
Responding to a question about Apex Legends potentially moving to a new engine in a recent Reddit AMA, Respawn said that it currently has no plans to do so, especially since an engine switch would pull a significant portion of the development team from working on new content for the shooter.
“We have no plans to move to a new engine at this time,” the studio wrote. “Changing to a new engine is a massive undertaking that would ultimately pull critical resources from supporting the live game.”
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean Respawn has no technical improvements for Apex Legends in the works whatsoever – the developer could, for instance, be working on upgrades to the engine that the game is built on – but those who were hoping for a more significant change probably shouldn’t be holding their breath.