A prominent designer at Respawn Entertainment, the Apex Legends’ developers, has been fired after remarks he made in 2007 resurfaced. Daniel Klein acknowledged that the posts were offensive and accepted the studio’s decision to fire him.
The posts were accused of containing “racist” and “sexist” commentary. In one of the posts, Klein complained that women were irrational. The designer also made a joke about feeding people from Africa.
Initially, Respawn’s communications director said: “I don’t think anything from 2007 reflects on a person in 2021. People grow up.”
However, on August 10, Klein announced his termination, tweeting:
“You may or may not have seen the awful, bigoted things I said in 2007. I wholeheartedly agree that THAT guy should have been fired.
“I said racist and sexist things, not because I deeply believed any of them, but because I knew I could get a reaction out of people. That does not excuse anything I said; the impact of my words was the same regardless of what I believed.”
Klein added that although he disagreed with the termination decision, he accepted it.
“To be clear, I’m not saying EA or Respawn did anything untoward. They were absolutely within their rights to terminate me, much as I may disagree with that decision,” he wrote.
