Apex Legends new September 3 update is live on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it has removed a racial slur from the game involving Caustic and Crypto. Today, Respawn and EA dropped a new Apex Legends update alongside official patch notes, and these patch notes reveal that the former has addressed an offensive and inappropriate bit of dialogue between Caustic and Crypto.
Last month, it was brought to the attention of Tom Casiello, a writer on the game, that during dialogue Caustic sometimes refers to Crypto as a “rat,” a racial slur against Asians. At the time, Casiello acknowledged the problem, said it would be addressed, but noted it may take a bit. Fast-forward to today and it’s been pulled.
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“When we write lines like this,” said Casiello of the bit of dialogue, “we run them past people from the community. Coworkers. Friends. The lines didn’t set off alarms at the time, but just because a handful of people weren’t familiar with the slur, doesn’t mean it isn’t one. I apologize to anyone upset by this. We’ll take care of it on our end and continue to do our due diligence, casting a wider net next time. Caustic may be a jerk to Crypto, but that doesn’t mean you should be made to feel bad about who you are.”
In response to this news, some fans complained of the change, citing censorship and a “watering down” of the character, to which Casiello immediately shot down as nonsense.
“Oh, for the love of — Look. Last thing I’ll say on the subject. But NOBODY’S getting watered down,” said the writer. “Do you have so little faith in us as writers you think we can’t come up with a better insult than a rodent?! He’ll call him a dung beetle or a maggot or a cockroach, or a dozen other things that didn’t double as slurs. I know you’re all trained on a lifetime of MSNBC vs FOX, and it’s ‘pick a side’ but all I give a damn about is if it changes the story or character.It does neither. If it did, I’d be the first one raising hell. The story we wanted to tell, we’re still telling.So your ‘disappointment’ is completely wasted on this. Enough with the us vs them crap. Take it somewhere else on Twitter. I hear it’s all the rage.”
At the moment, it’s unclear what the dialogue has been changed to, but what we do know is that Caustic’s usage of “rat” has been removed and won’t be coming back.
Apex Legends is available, for free, via the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
