"Apex Legends 2 Release Delayed Indefinitely"

In its recent earnings call, EA has provided further insights into its strategy for the popular hero shooter Apex Legends, outlining what players can expect in the future.

Apex Legends 2 Not in EA's Plans as Focus Shifts to Player Retention

Apex Legends is set to launch its 23rd season in early November. Despite its status as one of the most popular franchises in the gaming world, the game has seen a decline in player engagement since its 2019 launch, missing its revenue targets. EA plans to address this through "fundamental changes."

During the company's Q2 earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson acknowledged the game's performance and emphasized the need for "meaningful systematic innovation that fundamentally changes the way the game plays." Despite the decline, Wilson's comments suggest that EA is not interested in developing an Apex Legends sequel, citing the game's top-tier position in the hero shooter genre.

"We are currently managing the trajectory of the business," Wilson stated. "However, given the strength of the brand, the size of our global community, and our position in the top tier of free-to-play live service games, we believe we can return the business to growth over time."

Wilson noted that the underperformance of Apex Legends Season 22 helped EA identify areas for improvement. "Following changes to the battle pass construct, we did not see the lift in monetization we had expected," he said. He highlighted two key observations in the free-to-play FPS category:

"First, in the competitive landscape where brand, a strong core player base, and high-quality mechanics are more crucial than ever, Apex has proven to be a compelling franchise for us and an industry stalwart," Wilson remarked. "Second, to drive significant growth and re-engagement, large systematic changes are required. We will continue to focus on retention and the breadth of content to serve our global community as we work towards more significant, innovative changes in the future."

Overall, EA seems more interested in continuously improving the existing Apex Legends rather than starting anew with an Apex Legends 2. "In the context of live service driven games at scale, the Version 2 thing has almost never been as successful as the Version 1 thing," Wilson added.

Apex Legends Set for Innovative Updates on a Season-by-Season Basis

Wilson emphasized that EA's current objective is to support Apex Legends' global player base and deliver new, innovative, and creative content on a season-by-season basis. He assured players that their time and effort invested in the game will be safeguarded, as the planned changes will be implemented "in a way that players don’t have to give up the progress that they’ve made or the investment that they’ve put into the existing ecosystem."

"Any time we cause a global player community to have to choose between the investments they’ve made to date and future innovation and creativity, that’s never a good place to put our community in," he explained. "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 key modalities of play within those seasons."

EA has begun implementing these changes to enhance the Apex Legends experience. Wilson noted that their plans to recover from declining player engagement will involve "different modalities of play beyond what the current core mechanic delivers." He added, "We think we can do those two things together, and we won’t believe we have to separate the experience in order to do so, but again, the team is working through this now."