Although the Switch version of the online free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends wasn’t published until 2021, the overall goal is to keep the franchise going for a very long time.
The game’s director, Steven Ferreira, stated that the team was in it for the “long haul” and hoped to maintain the IP for at least 15 years in an interview with our pals at GamesIndustry.biz.
“We’re eager to see Apex become a franchise that endures for ten, fifteen, or more years because we think it will. We can’t just accomplish everything at once, exhaust ourselves, and be unprepared to do it over the long run.”
The studio has been “holding onto” some content it has been “hanging onto for a long time” until the game had reached a particular level of quality and was in line with the needs expressed by player feedback, according to Ferreira, who notes that the game is presently in its sixteenth season.
Respawn is also establishing a third studio in Madison, Wisconsin, in the US, which will help to lessen some of the burden. Its primary function will be to support the Apex Legends live service, but it may also be used for other Respawn projects in the future. Ryan Burnett, a former director of engine production at Epic Games, will serve as the studio’s manager. He also spent 14 years at Raven Software working on the Call of Duty franchise.
To date, Apex Legends has earned more than $2 billion. EA is rumored to have canceled a single-player project set in the same setting in more recent versions.
Apex Legends is a free download for all platforms, including the Switch, if you’re curious to give it a try, but it will take up a lot of space.
Does Apex Legends cost money? Can you envision this game, or even just the franchise, lasting as long as a series like Call of Duty?