EA Hints at Major Changes Coming to Apex Legends This Year

07.03.2024 - 20:38 / gamerant.com / Jeff Grubb / Andrew Wilson / Ea / John DiCarlo

At a recent technology conference, EA's CEO stated that Apex Legends will begin to «expand beyond the traditional battle royale universe» within the next year. Apex Legends' future strategy might remind fans of another popular game that began as a battle royale.

In December, Fortnite added new modes like LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing, which were a significant departure from its battle royale formula. It's unclear whether Apex Legends plans to implement modes as drastically different from its core gameplay, or whether it plans to take an entirely different approach to expanding beyond its traditional battle royale format. However, one thing is clear, which is that EA has long-term plans for the now five-year-old game.

As reported by VGC, EA CEO Andrew Wilson explained that the company is exploring «more modalities of play» within Apex Legends, which fans will begin to see within the next 12 months. Wilson also explained that EA is focused on growing the game's popularity in untapped markets, like certain regions of Europe and Asia, where there is apparently an «incredible appetite» for Apex Legends, but «engagement and monetization» haven't broken through yet. Wilson summarized his speech by stating that new-user friendliness, more ways to play, and reaching more regions around the world will allow Apex Legends to continue to grow well into the future.

Apex Legends has already implemented different ways to play through its Mixtape playlist, which includes non-battle royale modes like Team Deathmatch, Control, and Gun Run. Respawn Entertainment's reasoning for the permanent Mixtape playlist was to offer less competitive avenues for users who didn't want to jump straight into the game's cutthroat battle royale mode. It seems that EA is intent on expanding this approach.

As for other recent Apex Legends news, rumors suggest that Respawn is working on a new game set in the Titanfall and Apex Legends universe. Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb was adamant that the game is not Titanfall 3, although it does involve Titans in some way. The mysterious game began as a secret project at Respawn developed by a small team, which included Titanfall's original director, Steve Fukuda. This game, which is still unconfirmed, comes after the cancelation of a previous game set in the Titanfall-Apex Legends universe over a year ago.

EA recently canceled another Respawn project, this one set in the Star Wars universe. Following the recent comments by EA's CEO regarding his high hopes for Apex Legends' future, it's possible that the company is encouraging Respawn to focus on expanding its Titanfall-based universe.

Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game made by Respawn. In this shooter, players take up the mantle of a Legend —