Digital Arts has mentioned it’s now planning a “larger, extra significant replace” for Apex Legends, or “an Apex 2.0”, a number of months after enjoying down the thought of a sequel.
Talking in October, EA CEO Andrew Wilson mentioned Apex Legends‘ newest season had fallen wanting expectations, however that it was attempting to enhance the present sport expertise by updates, moderately than planning a full Model 2, which he mentioned within the context of stay service video games, “has nearly by no means been as profitable because the Model 1 factor”.
Nevertheless, talking throughout EA’s earnings name on Tuesday, Wilson appeared to have softened his stance. As engagement continues to say no for Apex, the exec admitted that “a extra significant replace” was wanted, and that Apex’s improvement workforce is at work planning one.
Nevertheless, Wilson mentioned that any vital Apex Legends launch wouldn’t arrive till after the subsequent Battlefield sport, which is deliberate to launch someday earlier than April 2026.
“Apex might be one of many nice new launches in our business over the past decade and has been liked by that core cohort,” Wilson mentioned. “We’ve had over 200 million folks play the sport. Nevertheless, the trajectory of the enterprise of that franchise has not been headed within the path that we’ve got wished for a while.
“Now we have been attempting, tuning and testing many issues within the context of the continued assist of the group. As we take into consideration Apex at the moment, I actually take into consideration the event occurring throughout three core vectors.
“The primary is how will we proceed to assist this unbelievable group that performs the sport day in and day trip, which numbers tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals. And that’s each high quality of life, anti-cheat, and all the issues that make the core expertise nice, in addition to the creation of latest content material for that group.”
He continued: “The second part, and I feel I’ve talked about this earlier than, is we do consider there can be a time the place we have to do a extra significant replace of Apex as a broad sport expertise, and the workforce is diligently engaged on that. You need to think about we in all probability wouldn’t drop that on prime of a Battlefield launch. So from a timing standpoint, our pondering proper now’s that that will exist post-Battlefield.”
Wilson mentioned that EA had demonstrated its potential to construct franchises that stay common for a number of many years, and that “our expectation is that Apex can be additionally a kind of franchises”.
He added: “Someday on a longer-term time horizon, there can be a good larger, extra significant replace to that broader sport expertise. An Apex 2.0, if you’ll. This is not going to be the ultimate incarnation of Apex.
“The workforce stays extremely dedicated. We proceed to take a position behind the core group, which continues to play within the tens of hundreds of thousands of gamers. However we do consider that there needs to be a extra main replace. That may in all probability occur after the Battlefield launch, simply when it comes to timing. And the workforce is diligently working by what that will 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 group of extremely aggressive gamers and new communities that wish to come and expertise all of the greatness that Apex has to supply.”