Game as a service
Although Apex Legends isn’t quite the streaming-chart-destroyer it once was (overtaking League of Legends at one point), it’s still very regularly found on the top 10 Twitch stream list.
EA is riding that gamble all the way to the bank, as it remains one of the more popular battle royale titles in a sea of games that were dragged under the tide. Director Chad Grenier thinks it’s here to stay too, noting that the game could even evolve to become more than just a battle royale title.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Grenier explains that Respawn has content planned “all the way up to Season 12,” which is a full four seasons ahead of Season 8, which isn’t due until 2021 (Season 7 hasn’t even started yet). Once Season 8 is shipped, the team will start working on Seasons 13 and 14, he says; giving us a vague idea of how far ahead the team works.
He also clarifies that Respawn does “a lot of things to mitigate data mining,” claiming that many other future bits of content could have been uncovered if they weren’t actively fighting the practice. With that in mind, the director says that it’s “fair game,” even if the team is “bummed out” when content is spoiled.
Grenier says that “looking into the future, you’re probably going to see the game becoming more than just a battle royale game.” While that statement could be foreshadowing drastic change, the example Grenier gives in this context is the addition of more limited time modes “as a starting point” for what might come down the line. An arena battle gametype has been datamined, which might be what he’s alluding to.
His sentiment makes perfect sense, especially given how quickly the market could shift away from battle royale games. It behooves Respawn to think on their feet, potentially changing Apex Legends into something else, while keeping that massive playerbase and ecosystem.
Apex Legends’ newest map was a Titanfall 3 concept [Eurogamer]
