Apex Legends players have expressed concern for the future of the battle royale following the surprising news that its sister title, Apex Legends Mobile, will officially shut down later in 2023.
The news that Apex Legends Mobile will shut down in May 2023 came as a huge shock on January 31.
Respawn’s statement described the decision as “painful” and explained: “Factors beyond our control have prevented us from maintaining the high-quality experience and content our players deserve.”
While some players used the opportunity to call for mobile-exclusive Legends, like Fade and Rhapsody, to make their way into the main game, others have expressed concern for the series amid other reports that Apex Legends has not been as successful as EA had hoped.
Apex Legends players worried after Apex Mobile shut down
A series of Reddit posts captured players concerns, with plenty questioning how safe Apex Legends’ future is given the decision to sunset one version of the BR.
One player, replying to the announcement that Mobile will cease to operate in a few months, said: “Apex console will be next if they don’t start making improvements.”
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Another explained they were worried about Respawn’s silence regarding Season 16, which is set to begin in a couple of weeks: “Damn, now I’m getting a bit scared, so much money was dumped on that project. I know a whole different company was working on it, but still, to just kill the project so soon is shocking.”
A third predicted a “death spiral” from EA and Respawn, saying: “We may actually begin to see a death spiral from here like many other EA acquired studios. Once they’re in it, they usually can’t escape until a shutdown.”
It’s unsurprising that such a major decision has fans worried for the future though. It should be said that, at the time of writing, there is nothing to suggest the main Apex Legends title is in jeopardy or close to a shutdown.
However, news of Apex Mobile’s demise was followed by confirmation from EA that Apex did not perform as well as had been hoped in the past quarter.
EA admits that Apex Legends underperformed expectations in the last quarter."[Performance] of the Apex franchise was below thelevels we had anticipated, reflecting the challenging market dynamics." pic.twitter.com/WNVQ8bxWem
— Apex Legends News (@alphaINTEL) January 31, 2023
We still expect Season 16 to drop as normal on February 14, bringing a major overhaul to Legend classifications and some new weapons.