In recent years, the multiplayer game Apex Legends fan base has begun to dwindle. Under such circumstances, it might seem logical to refresh the project by releasing the second part. However, Electronic Arts intends to go the other way.
During the latest earnings report, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about the company’s plans for Apex Legends to regain a steadily declining player base. One question concerned the possibility of completely rebuilding the game and launching Apex 2.0.
The company admits that the hero shooter’s 22nd Season launched in August didn’t meet expectations. Still, EA is optimistic and believes it can return the business to growth over time. According to CEO Andrew Wilson in an interview with VGC:
“To drive significant growth and re-engagement, large systematic change is required. We will continue to focus on retention and breadth of content in service of our global community as we work towards more significant, innovative changes in the future.”
This caused alarm in the community and fears that “significant and innovative changes” could mean “Apex Legends 2.0”. When the executive director was asked a clarifying question about this, he immediately dismissed it as too risky:
“It’s a really good question and probably beyond the scope of this conversation, but what I would say is that typically, what we have seen in the context of live service driven games at scale, is the Version 2 thing has almost never been as successful as the Version 1 thing.”
According to Andrew, preserving players’ achievements and investments while improving their gaming experience is essential. EA will continue to improve the game’s content. With each season, the project will receive new items and modes. Other innovations will be introduced to attract new players. However, the head of Electronic Arts has not revealed which ones yet.
“…and so our objective will be to continue to innovate in the core experience, and you’re seeing that from season to season now as our seasons get progressively bigger and we’re changing kind of key modalities of play within those seasons.”
According to Steam DB online, Apex Legends has continued to drop in recent months, hitting 143,095 players. Only time will tell how possible it is to attract the audience back to the game. However, there are no objective indicators of an upturn in activity. ar.
Steam Charts
Apex has now released a new post on Twitter, and from its appearance, we can expect a new season very soon.
