Apex Legends 2 Delayed: No Release Date Set

In its recent earnings report, EA offered further insights into its plans for the popular hero shooter Apex Legends, and what its player community can anticipate.

A Sequel to Apex Legends Isn't a Priority for EA, as It Prioritizes Existing Player RetentionApex Legends' Leading Position in the Hero Shooter Genre Is Crucial for EA

Apex Legends is set to begin its 23rd season next month in early November, and while EA's hero shooter remains a top franchise in gaming, its player engagement has decreased since its 2019 launch. Therefore, the game has missed revenue goals—something EA aims to fix with "fundamental changes."

During the company's Q2 earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson addressed Apex Legends' performance, noting a "need for significant systematic innovation to fundamentally alter gameplay."

While declining numbers might suggest an "Apex Legends 2," Wilson's comments indicated EA isn't developing a sequel given the game's leading position.

"We're managing the business's current path," Wilson stated. "But we believe the brand's strength, large global community, and top-tier status among free-to-play live service games will allow us to restore growth over time."

Wilson also said that Apex Legends Season 22 underperforming had helped EA understand how to consistently improve the game. "Following changes to the battle pass structure, we didn't see the monetization increase we anticipated," he said. Wilson then explained two observations EA made in the free-to-play FPS genre:

"First, in the competitive environment where brand, a strong core player base and high-quality mechanics are paramount, Apex has proven a compelling franchise and an industry leader," Wilson noted. "Second, to drive substantial growth and re-engagement, major systematic change is needed. We will continue to focus on retention and content breadth for our global community as we work toward more substantial, innovative changes in the future."

Overall, EA appeared more focused on consistently improving the existing Apex Legends rather than creating an Apex Legends 2. "It's a great question and perhaps beyond the scope of this discussion, but what I'd say is that typically, with large-scale live service games, Version 2 rarely matches Version 1's success," Wilson also noted.

Apex Legends Planned for Innovative Updates Seasonally

Wilson additionally said that their objective at the moment is to ensure that Apex Legends' global player base continues to receive support, "and deliver them new innovative, creative content on a season-by-season basis," he stated. Moreover, Wilson said players will receive a guarantee that their time and effort spent on Apex Legends are things EA will safeguard as these changes they plan on making will be built "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, and so our objective will be to continue to innovate in the core experience," he explained, "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 their efforts to implement these changes in the Apex Legends experience, Wilson said, additionally noting that their plans to revive declining player engagement will manifest "in diverse game modes beyond the current core mechanics." He added, "and we believe we can achieve both simultaneously, and we don’t believe we must separate the experience to do so, but again, the team is addressing this now."