EA unveiled how the company plans to keep Apex Legends' growth strong, announcing that the game will be coming to mobile devices during its latest quarterly earnings call. Apex Legends is developed by Respawn Entertainment, the developer most famous for the Titanfall series, and has quickly become one of the hottest properties in gaming on the back of one of the most successful launch periods ever experienced by a video game.
Although Apex Legends growth has stagnated over the last month or so, a lot of that can be attributed to two different factors. First, Apex Legends currently has a glacially slow content release plan, with the game's Season 1 Battle Pass barely adding meaningful content despite being intended to last players for months. EA addressed this factor in the conference call as well, suggesting that Apex Legends Season 2 will feature a much more robust content offering. Second, and perhaps more significant in the grand scheme of battle royale dominance: Apex Legends actually hit the 50 million player mark well ahead of when Fortnite did in their respective life cycles, but that's also where the latter capped out prior to launching on mobile platforms. Now, it appears Apex Legends is prepared to make the leap onto devices that were able to launch Fortnite into previously unheard-of free-to-play territory.
According to EA (via Engadget), Apex Legends mobile will be coming — we just don't know when, or what it will look like. The company essentially stated its intent during the earnings call, but didn't provide any gritty details regarding what fans can expect from the title's new foray into the world of mobile gaming, although its safe to say the game will support both iOS and Android. Given that many of Apex Legends' current business decisions seem to mirror what Fortnite has done, it's a safe bet to expect a similar infrastructure in terms of matchmaking, access, and more.
EA also revealed that Apex Legends (and, presumably, Apex Legends mobile) would be coming to Chinese markets, another decision that closely resembles the way Epic Games has rolled out Fortnite's business model post-launch. It's also a smart decision — PUBG has been desperately trying to break in to the Chinese market for months now with no success, and the game's popularity has been dwarfed by Fortnite. Chinese gaming remains a lucrative prospect for publishers and developers to pursue, and making sure Apex Legends is available in that market is a sound decision from EA regarding the game's future.
All of this information might seem vague at first glance, and it is, but it's also meaningful in the sense that there's a clear plan of attack for EA and Respawn. Apex Legends mobile should revitalize interest in a game that has slowly begun to taper off due to a lack of content updates, and famous streamers like Shroud and Dr. Disrespect could easily be convinced to give the game a shot once more should Apex Legends mobile and its Season 2 offerings be tantalizing enough.
Source: EA Q4 2019 Earnings Call (via Engadget)