As Respawn’s battle royale Apex Legends nears its sixth birthday, EA has stated it’s failing to do the enterprise for the firm, and outlined plans for what it referred to as Apex Legends 2.0.
Talking in a monetary name on its third quarter outcomes, EA stated that Apex Legends internet bookings (income) have been down year-over-year, however carried out in-line with the firm’s expectations.
Throughout a query and solutions session with analysts, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was requested for an replace on the efficiency of Apex Legends, and his response was clear: Apex Legends is a large sport with thousands and thousands of gamers, nevertheless it’s merely not making sufficient cash for EA.
“Apex might be one in every of the nice new launches in our trade over the final decade and has been liked by that core cohort and we have had over 200 million individuals play the sport,” Wilson started. “Nevertheless, the trajectory of the enterprise of that franchise has not been headed in the path that we now have needed for a while. We now have been attempting, tuning, and testing many issues in the context of the ongoing assist of the neighborhood.
“As we take into consideration Apex in the present day, I actually take into consideration the growth taking place throughout three core vectors. The primary is how can we proceed to assist this unbelievable neighborhood that performs the sport day-in and day-out, which numbers tens of thousands and thousands of individuals, and that is each quality-of-life, anti-cheat, and all of the issues that make the core expertise nice in addition to the creation of recent content material for that neighborhood.
“And we proceed to attempt to take a look at and develop extra and nice content material for that neighborhood. And I’d say we now have seen some progress in that, however in all probability not as a lot as we might have appreciated.”
So, what’s EA going to do to flip Apex Legends round in monetary phrases? Wilson stated it’s engaged on a serious replace to the sport, what he referred to as Apex Legends 2.0, that sounds designed to reinvigorate the franchise, convey extra individuals into the sport, and, sure, make more cash.
Nevertheless, Wilson stated he doesn’t need to launch Apex Legends 2.0 on prime of the subsequent Battlefield, which is due out earlier than April 2026. It’ll come out after that, so, in all probability, in some unspecified time in the future throughout EA’s 2027 fiscal yr ending March 2027.
“We do consider there will likely be a time the place we’d like to do a extra significant replace of Apex as a broad sport expertise, and the crew is diligently engaged on that,” Wilson stated. “It is best to think about we in all probability would not drop that on prime of a Battlefield launch. And so from a timing standpoint, our considering proper now’s that that may exist post-Battlefield.
“After which on a longer-term time horizon, once more, these franchises that exist at this degree and have this a lot fan love do not come alongside all that always. What I believe we have demonstrated as an organization is a capability to construct franchises that final 10, 20, 30 years and rising.
“Our expectation is that Apex may even be a type of franchises and that someday on a longer-term time horizon, there will likely be an excellent larger, extra significant replace to that broader sport expertise, an Apex 2.0, if you’ll. This is not going to be the remaining incarnation of Apex.
“So the crew stays extremely dedicated. We proceed to make investments behind the core neighborhood who continues to play, that numbers in the tens of thousands and thousands of gamers. We do consider that there needs to be a extra main replace that can in all probability occur after a Battlefield launch simply by way of timing, and the crew is diligently working by means of what that may be.
“After which longer-term, our expectation is that we’ll proceed to broaden what this franchise is and the way we assist a core neighborhood of extremely aggressive gamers and new communities that need to come and expertise all the greatness that Apex has to supply.”
Apex Legends 2.0 sounds a bit like what Activision tried with Name of Obligation battle royale Warzone, which rebooted considerably with a 2.0 model in 2022. The jury continues to be out on whether or not that was the proper transfer, with followers of the free-to-play shooter usually reminiscing about Warzone because it was in the first two years of its life. The state of affairs with Apex Legends is totally different, after all, however EA will likely be conscious of how its opponents in the battle royale market have fared as they work to develop its participant base.
Talking of which, Apex Legends stays one in every of the top-played video games on Steam by way of concurrent participant rely (Microsoft and Sony don’t make participant numbers public). Nevertheless, it’s nicely previous its peak on Valve’s platform, and is on a trajectory to hit file lows.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.