It’s the end of a very short era. EA has announced that the mobile version of Apex Legends is being shut down just months after its launch, and Battlefield Mobile’s development is being scrapped.
The fact that this is happening so soon is pretty shocking - Apex Legends Mobile released on 17 May last year, and Battlefield Mobile only just entered its beta period in November. However, Apex Mobile clearly didn’t have the impact that EA hoped it would, and Battlefield Mobile can’t have been showing much promise, either.
Take a look at some of our favourite wins and fails from Apex Legends below.
“We’ve made the strategic decision to stop development on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile,” a statement from EA reads. “Despite Apex Mobile’s strong start, the ongoing experience was not going to meet the expectations of our players. After months of working with our development partner, we have made the mutual decision to sunset the mobile game. Our love for the Apex universe and our players remains unchanged. We look forward to exploring this universe, its characters, and its stories along with you.
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“We've also made the decision to stop the development of the current Battlefield mobile title,” it continues. “As the industry has evolved and our strategy to create a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem has taken shape, we decided to pivot from the current direction to best deliver on our vision for the franchise and to meet the expectations of our players. We remain highly committed to unlocking Battlefield’s enormous potential. We’re hard at work at evolving Battlefield 2042, and are in pre-production on our future Battlefield experiences at our studios across the globe.”
I'm not sure how well fans are going to react to the Battlefield mobile game being scrapped in favour of Battlefield 2042, but what can you do? Thankfully though, as IGN reports, EA's CEO, Andrew Wilson, indicated in an earnings call that the company could later return to these projects and bring them back with a different approach, so they might not be gone for good.
Apex Legends Mobile will be shut down on 1 May 2023 at 4PM PDT, so there’s just three months to go. Hopefully, it'll be brought back sometime in the future.
Featured Image Credit: EATopics: Apex Legends, Battlefield, EA