Apex Legends’ Daniel Klein Fired Over “Racist” Comments on Blogs

Daniel Zenon Klein has left the Apex Legends team as of Friday, August 5.

Daniel Klein, who worked as the lead game designer for the battle royale game Apex Legends, has been fired from Respawn following the reemergence of blog posts with offensive content that were written by him.

According to Eurogamer, Klein himself confirmed the end of his employment with Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Apex Legends, through a post on Twitter. According to him, Respawn had fired him by Friday of last week following the discovery of the blogs.

In the thread, Klein admitted to being let go by the developer as a result of the troubles he was facing from the Internet. He also admitted to making offensive comments in a thread that he had participated in and said that he did so knowing that he can get a reaction and not because he truly believed what he was saying.

Klein also said that, through the years, he had “poured so much energy into becoming a better person,” but he feels depressed as he thinks he couldn’t make up for the mistakes he did in the past.

Klein came under fire last month when the blog posts in which he made “racist and sexist” comments emerged. According to PC Games N, the offensive content ascribed to Klein was published in 2007, or 14 years ago.

The game designer made several Twitter posts in the last few weeks apologizing for the offensive comments that he had published in the past.

Klein was well-known through his interactions with the gaming community. He had famously figured in online altercations with fans over changes in game designs every season.

Klein’s exit from Respawn and Apex Legends comes almost immediately after Blizzard Entertainment fired three people including “Diablo 4” director Luis Barriga and two others. Blizzard has not made known yet why these employees were removed from the company.