Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a free-to-play first-person shooter battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 4, 2019, without any prior announcement or marketing. A Nintendo Switch version is planned for release in late 2020, along with cross-platform play between all supported platforms.
In Apex Legends, up to 20 three-person squads land on an island and search for weapons and supplies before attempting to defeat all other players in combat. The available play area on the island shrinks over time, forcing players to keep moving or else find themselves outside the play area which can be fatal. The final team alive wins the round. The game is set in the same science fiction universe as Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall and Titanfall 2.
Work on the game began sometime around late 2016 and early 2017, though the project remained a secret right up until its launch. The game's release in 2019 came as a surprise, as until that point it had been assumed that Respawn Entertainment was working on a third installment to the Titanfall franchise, the studio's previous major title.
Apex Legends received positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it a worthy competitor to Fortnite Battle Royale, a similar game that had gained massive popularity in the previous year. Apex Legends surpassed over 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month. According to EA, as of July 2019, the game had approximately 8 to 10 million players a week and by October 2019 it had approximately 70 million players worldwide.
Gameplay
Apex Legends is an online multiplayer battle royale game featuring squads of three players using pre-made characters, similar to those of hero shooters. Alternate modes have been introduced allowing for single and for two-player squads since the game's release.Each match generally features twenty teams of three-player squads. Players can join friends in a squad or can be matched randomly with other players. Before the match, each player on the squad selects one of the 13 playable characters, with the exception that no character may be selected more than once by a squad. Each character in the squad has a unique design, personality, and abilities that provide different playstyles to the team. All teams are then placed on an aircraft that passes over the game map. One player in each squad is the jumpmaster, selecting when the squad should skydive out of the aircraft and where to land with the concurrence of the other squad members. However, players are free to deviate from the squad's path.
Once on the ground, the squad can scavenge for weapons, armor, and other equipment that is scattered around buildings, or in crates randomly distributed around the map, while keeping an eye out for other squads. Apex Legends includes a nonverbal communication "ping system" which allows players to use their game controller to communicate to their squad certain directions, weapon locations, enemies, and suggested strategies. While the game offers movement options similar to other shooters, it includes some of the gameplay features of previous Titanfall games, such as the ability to climb over short walls, slide down inclined surfaces, and use zip-lines to traverse an area quickly.
Players who become knocked down in the course of a game can be revived by their squadmates. Should a player be killed completely, they can still be resurrected if their team member collect their respawn banner, which appears at the place where they died, and bring it to one of several beacons on the island. The banner, however, must be collected within a time limit, before expiring and fully eliminating the player.
Over time, the game's safe zone will reduce in size around a randomly-selected point on the map; players outside the safe zone take damage and may die if they do not reach the safe zone in time. This also confines squads to smaller spaces to force encounters. The last squad with any members left alive is crowned the "Apex Champions" of that match. Players are awarded in-game currency based on their squad's placement as well as experience points.
Apex Legends is a free-to-play game, monetized through microtransactions and loot boxes, which allow the player to spend both real money and in-game currency on cosmetic items, such as outfits for the Legends and new colors for weapons.
Seasons
The developers of Apex Legends have outlined their roadmap for the game's first year of additional content, with a new game season planned for every three months. Each new season is intended to bring with it the release of a new playable character, new weapons and purchasable cosmetic items.The game's first season started on March 19, 2019. Associated with seasons are time-limited battle passes which reward players with new cosmetic items, should they complete in-game challenges during the season. Alongside new cosmetic items, seasons can also bring changes to the map and additional gameplay elements.
| Season | Title | Period | Description |
| 1 | Wild Frontier | March 19, 2019 – June 18, 2019 | The first season of Apex Legends introduced a new playable character known as Octane and included several bug fixes and quality of life improvements, including adjustments to so-called "hitboxes" and also unique skills of the game's characters. Season 1 also brought with it the game's first battle pass and a large number of new cosmetic items. |
| 2 | Battle Charge | July 2, 2019 – October 1, 2019 | With season 2, the developers introduced another playable character called Wattson and also re-designed the layout of the game's island. Following an explosion, roaming alien wildlife, known as leviathans and flyers, have been attracted to the island and destroyed large areas, rendering parts of the map unrecognizable from the previous season. Season 2 also released a new weapon and introduced a new ranked mode of play, allowing players of a similar skill to play against each other, and adjusting a player's ranking based on their game performance. |
| 3 | Meltdown | October 1, 2019 – February 3, 2020 | A new legend named Crypto is introduced who has tried to rig the Apex games. A new weapon known as the Charge Rifle is added and changes to Ranked will be made. The season also comes with a brand new battle pass. A brand new map, named "World's Edge" is also introduced, which has players fighting through volcanic and frozen landscapes. The map also includes a train that travels throughout World's Edge. The season also changes up the meta by removing certain attachments and introducing new ones whilst changing what current items can do. |
| 4 | Assimilation | February 4, 2020 – May 12, 2020 | A new legend named Revenant is introduced, a Simulacrum with the memories of his human self. A new sniper weapon known as the Sentinel is added. World's Edge is devastated by a Harvester that has appeared in the middle of the map, creating lava faults and changing the environment. Major changes to ranked were made, introducing a new tier known as "Master" tier, while the Apex Predator tier is for the top 500 players on each platform, meaning players can be pushed out of it. |
| 5 | Fortune's Favor | May 12, 2020 – present | A new legend named Loba is introduced, a thief with the ability to steal loot from nearby areas and teleport. Loba is out for revenge against Revenant, a simulacrum hitman who killed her parents. Ranked Series 4 is largely identical to Series 3 and reconnect is added which allows players to rejoin a session if they disconnect. A new "quest" system is also introduced, which allows players to fight in PvE missions either solo or with a squad to earn unique rewards. A new battle pass is also introduced. Apex announced they would be expanding their servers to the Middle East. Skull Town and Thunderdome have also been destroyed. |
In addition to the regular season passes, Apex Legends features limited time events. The first such event was the Fight or Fright event; which took place in October 2019.
The next event to follow was the Holo-Day Bash Winter event, launched in December 2019 and ran for several weeks. The "Winter Express" mode is a domination-style game, with squads dropping in with full gear, attempting to capture the Winter Express.
The third event was the Grand Soirée Arcade event, which launched in January 2020 and ran for two weeks. The event had 7 modes that lasted for two days each.
The fourth event was the System Override Collection event, which launched in March 2020 and ran for two weeks. The "Deja Loot" mode removes all randomly-generated events from the game, meaning all loot drops and ring locations will be the same every single match. The event also introduced Evo Shields, shields that can be upgraded by dealing damage to enemy players. It was introduced in Deja Loot and was added to all modes after the event ended.
The fifth event was the Lost Treasures Collection event, which launched in June 2020 and ran for 2 weeks. The "Armed and Dangerous Evolved" mode forces players to use shotguns and snipers, in addition to all armour being unavaliable to loot, forcing players to use an Evo Shield they get at the start of the match. Similar to System Override, the mode for the Lost Treasures event added a new item, the Mobile Respawn Beacon, which allows players to respawn their teammates in most areas of the map. It was added to all modes after the event's conclusion.
These events add unique, limited-time character skins themed to the event that can be earned in-game.
Characters
Apex Legends has a diverse cast of 13 characters. Many of the character designs are based on Titanfall. One character is non-binary, while other characters are LGBTQ.Development
Developer Respawn Entertainment had previously developed Titanfall and its sequel Titanfall 2, both of which were published by Electronic Arts who eventually acquired Respawn Entertainment in 2017.According to design director Mackey McCandlish, initial design on Apex Legends started before Titanfall 2 had shipped in 2016 and as of 2018 the entire Titanfall team at Respawn Entertainment was working on the project; however, executive producer Drew McCoy stated that work on the game did not begin until the spring of 2017. He also confirmed that the game had approximately 115 developers working on it, making it the studio's most labor-intensive project. Titanfall 2, by way of comparison, had around 85 developers.
According to McCoy, the studio was not sure what their next game would be after completing the post-release support for Titanfall 2, though they knew they wanted to keep making Titanfall games. As with the development of Titanfall 2, the studio broke into several small teams to create "action blocks", small game prototypes that showcase a gameplay element, a weapon, or similar feature of a game that would fit into a Titanfall sequel. One such "action block" was inspired by the success of the battle royale game genre led by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds; this prototype, which applied gameplay mechanics of previous Titanfall games in a battle royale format, was considered very successful and the studio decided to expand this model. The designers decided that having the pilotable Titans from their previous games would not work well in a battle-royale setting and instead focused on creating strong character classes which felt appropriate for the Titanfall franchise. They also found that some maneuverability features of prior Titanfall titles, such as wall-running, would make gameplay too challenging in a battle royale format, as identifying the direction of threats would be too difficult.
Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella told VentureBeat that Apex Legends, as a live-service and free-to-play battle-royale game, was a new challenge for the studio and represented a new way for them of developing games. Their design philosophy was focused on "chasing the fun" and designing all the mechanics around team-based play, rather than solo play. The final decision on major design factors, such as the size of the teams, the number of teams and the size of the map, were all based on what felt "most fun" to the developers and were strongly guided by "gut feeling".
Design director Mackey McCandlish also stated that with Apex Legends, they were looking to challenge the conventions of the still relatively young battle-royale genre and to add their studio's unique touch to that class of games. They felt that the choice of three-man squads and a limit of 20 teams gave players on average a greater chance to win and also felt more in line with the type of intimate gameplay they were hoping to achieve. McCandlish claimed that the studio felt the need to create a "defensible space" in the battle-royale mode which could not be easily imitated and that the communication system, the three-man squads, and the smaller playing area were all aligned with this goal.
As part of the development process, the game underwent extensive play-testing to ensure that all elements felt fun and balanced. Collectively the developers spent 100 to 200 hours a day trying out the game, a process which executive producer Drew McCoy called "probably the most important part of development". To refine the game's non-verbal communication system, the studio play-tested the game for a month without the use of voice chat and applied fake names to the play-testers to predict how most players would experience the game.
With the game mostly completed, Respawn's director of brand marketing, Arturo Castro, began working on how the studio would name and market it. Castro recognized that the game featured many elements which players would expect from a Titanfall franchise game, but lacked core elements such as Titans, Pilots and a single-player experience. Additionally, it had already been reported that Respawn was working on Titanfall 3 from a source at the studio. Respawn therefore decided that attempting to market the game as part of the Titanfall series would have been difficult and would risk alienating Titanfall fans. They, therefore, opted to treat the game as a new intellectual property. Respawn were also concerned that as they at that time had recently been acquired by EA, players would think that EA had forced them to make a battle royale game. McCoy affirmed that they had to convince Electronic Arts to allow them to make this game: "we decided to make this game. Not to be throwing EA under the bus, but this wasn't the game they were expecting. I had to go to executives, show it to them, and explain it and...not convince but more, 'Hey, trust us! This is the thing you want out of us.' This is a game where we had to say, 'This is what we want to do. Help us get there.'"
Concerned that a standard six-month marketing campaign for the game would have generated negative publicity from disgruntled Titanfall fans, Castro claims they eventually took inspiration from musical artist Beyoncé whose release of her self-titled album came as a surprise to fans—a strategy which proved financially successful. Wanting to generate some buzz about this new product before its release, the studio secretly arranged for about 100 social media influencers to travel to their studio to try the game and then instructed them to "tease" news of it on their social media accounts during halftime of the Super Bowl LIII, the day before Apex Legends formal release. Respawn CEO Vince Zampella felt the approach was "gross", according to Castro, as he found it reminiscent of the infamous Fyre Festival "hype" which later turned out to be a fraudulent event. However, as Apex Legends was already ready for release at this point, Castro felt the approach was an appropriate marketing strategy. Because of the game's performance in terms of player-count and viewership on streaming services, Castro felt vindicated in this decision. This approach was uncharacteristic of any prior EA title.
The game is built using a modified version of Valve's Source engine; Source had previously been used for Titanfall 2, however for Apex Legends several necessary adjustments to allow for the increased draw distances and the large game map were made. Apex Legends is believed to be pushing at the technological limits of its game engine and as a result, the game compromises on dynamic display resolution, with the quality of the image and frame rate suffering particularly on console versions and on lower-end PC devices.
Prior to launch, McCoy confirmed there were plans to implement cross-platform play to the game in the future, though claimed that game progression and in-game purchases cannot be transferred across systems due to hardware limitations. McCoy has also expressed the desire to eventually bring Apex Legends to iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch, though there are no plans to this effect for iOS and Android as of June 2020.
According to anonymous reports, the Chinese corporation Tencent is working with Electronic Arts to bring Apex Legends to China, as partnering with a local Chinese firm is a requirement for Western media companies wishing to make their products legally available in the country. In January 2020, EA confirmed to investors that it was working with a local partner in order to bring the game to PC in China, though it did not mention the partner by name.
Respawn established a new Vancouver, British Columbia, studio, within the EA Vancouver campus, dedicated to supporting Apex Legends in May 2020.
As part of the June 2020 EA Play presentation, Respawn announced that Apex Legends will be brought to the Steam storefront for Windows players, as well as to the Nintendo Switch by late 2020. Further, the game will support cross-platform play across all supported platforms on these releases.
Esports
Shortly after Apex Legends launch, it was seen as a potential esport competition, and Respawn had anticipated establishing events once the game had been established. As early as March 2019, various esport team sponsors began to assemble Apex Legends teams for these competitions. ESPN launched its EXP program to showcase esports events running alongside other ESPN-managed sporting events. The first such event was the EXP Pro-Am Apex Legends Exhibition, run on July 11, 2019 alongside the 2019 ESPY Awards. An EXP Invitational event with a $150,000 prize pool took place alongside the X Games Minneapolis 2019 from August 1 to 4, 2019. However, as a result of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings that occurred over that weekend, both ESPN and ABC opted to delay broadcast of the event out of respect for the victims of the shootings.Respawn and EA announced the Apex Legends Global Series in December 2019, consisting of several online events and twelve live events during 2020 with a total prize pool. The Global Series follows a similar approach as Fortnite Battle Royale by using multiple tiers of events to qualify players. Players will qualify for the Global Series through Online Tournaments. Top players and teams from these events will be invited to either regional Challenger events or to global Premier events, where the winners have a chance for a cash payout and invitations to one of the three major events. Three Major events will be held for one hundred teams to accumulate points in the Global Series to vie for placement in the final Major event as well as part of a prize pool. The fourth Major event will have up to sixty teams competing for a portion of a pool.
Reception
Upon release, Apex Legends received generally favorable reviews according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Some publications, including Destructoid, Game Informer, GamesRadar+, and PC Gamer, called it one of the best takes on the battle royale genre thus far, and a worthy challenger to Fortnite Battle Royale dominance of the genre.Critics lauded the combat in Apex Legends. Destructoid referred to the gunplay as the best they had experienced in a battle royale thus far; however, they felt let down that some of the mechanics from the previous Titanfall games were not present. Javy Gwaltney of Game Informer, on the other hand, claimed that the omission of the Titans and other elements from previous Respawn games was not a problem and found the combat to be satisfying and the gunplay powerful. He added that the addition of heroes can make for more exciting combat than in other battle royale games.
Reviewers praised the non-verbal communication system in the game with most considering it to be highly innovative. Polygon's Khee Hoon Chan opined that it "rendered voice chat with strangers largely unnecessary", and was emblematic of Apex Legends accessibility and astuteness. Destructoid likewise enjoyed the mechanic, predicting that it would become the new norm for the video games industry in battle royale games. Rock Paper Shotgun called it the "gold standard for non-verbal communication in games" and noted that, while not an entirely new concept, Respawn Entertainment had refined the idea.
Apex Legends received critical praise for the perceived diversity of its playable characters, which include a gay man and a non-binary character, though some reviewers felt that the nature of the game did not allow for a narrative which properly highlights this diversity.
Awards
Player-count and revenue
Eight hours after its launch, Apex Legends surpassed one million unique players, and reached 2.5 million unique players within 24 hours. In one week it achieved a total of 25 million players, with over 2 million peak concurrent, and by the end of its first month it reached 50 million players in total.Within the first month of its release, Apex Legends made $92 million in revenue across all platforms, the highest amount earned by any free-to-play game during its month of launch.
As news and popularity of Apex Legends spread, analysts saw the game as something to challenge the dominance of Fortnite Battle Royale, and by February 8, 2019—four days after the game's release—EA had seen its largest growth in stock value since 2014 on the basis of Apex Legends sudden success.
Throughout April, the game was estimated to have earned $24 million in revenue, representing 74 percent less than the amount it earned during its first month, as the game failed to sustain the same level of interest generated by its launch.
In July 2019, EA told investors that the game had 8 to 10 million players a week and also credited Apex Legends with the company's recent upturn in live services earnings as their Q1 2020 financial results exceeded expectations.
With the release of season 3 in October 2019, Apex Legends reached a playerbase of 70 million people internationally and is believed to have earned $45 million in that month alone.
'Iron Crown' event and loot box controversy
With the introduction of a limited-time event in August 2019, known as 'Iron Crown', the developers released several new purchasable cosmetic items within the game. The vast majority of these new items could only be acquired through purchasing loot boxes, and the most sought-after item could only be purchased at an additional cost after first having obtained 24 other purchasable items.Players and media outlets decried that as a result of this transaction model, the cost of the most sought-after item was approximately $170 —a pricepoint which Forbes called "hilariously out of touch" and compared negatively to most other major microtransaction models in the industry.
This resulted in a negative backlash from the player community and industry journalists, particularly on Reddit, where members of the Apex Legends community forum traded insults with developers of the game with the increasingly strong language being used by both parties.
As a result, Respawn Entertainment apologized for what they agreed was unfair monetization and promised to allow players the chance to purchase cosmetic items directly, albeit at an increased price. Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella apologised on Twitter for members of the development team "crossing a line with their comments", while also defending that they stood up for themselves against alleged death threats and insults aimed at their family members.