"Apex Legends 2 Release Delayed Indefinitely"

Apex Legends 2 Not in EA's Plans as Company Focuses on Retaining Player Base

In its recent earnings call, EA has shed light on its future plans for the popular hero shooter Apex Legends. As the game approaches its 23rd season in early November, EA is addressing the decline in player engagement and missed revenue targets since its launch in 2019. CEO Andrew Wilson emphasized the need for "fundamental changes" to the game to reverse these trends.

Despite the dip in performance, Wilson made it clear that EA is not considering a sequel, Apex Legends 2. He pointed out the game's strong position at the top of the hero shooter genre, suggesting that the company believes it can return the game to growth without starting from scratch. "We do have a moment right now where we are managing the current trajectory of the business," Wilson stated, "But we believe by virtue of the strength of the brand, the size of the global community, and the position we hold in the top tier of these free-to-play live service games, that we’ll be able to return that to growth in the business side over the course of time."

Wilson highlighted that the underwhelming results of Season 22 have provided valuable insights into necessary improvements. He noted that changes to the battle pass did not boost monetization as expected. He also identified two key aspects of the free-to-play FPS category: the importance of brand, a strong core player base, and high-quality mechanics, and the need for significant systematic changes to drive growth and re-engagement.

EA's strategy moving forward is to focus on enhancing the existing Apex Legends rather than launching a sequel. Wilson explained, "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."

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

EA's current objective is to support the global player base of Apex Legends by delivering innovative and creative content each season. Wilson assured players that their time and effort invested in the game will be safeguarded. "Any time we cause a global player community to have to choose between the investments they’ve made to date and future innovation creativity, that’s never a good place to put our community in," he said. The focus will be on innovating the core experience, with each season bringing larger and more significant changes to key modalities of play.

Wilson also mentioned that EA has already begun implementing these changes, aiming to introduce different modalities of play beyond the current core mechanics. He added, "and 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."