Apex Legends is renowned as one of the best Battle Royales on the market, shifting the trajectory of the Titanfall franchise firmly in the multiplayer direction. While Respawn Entertainment’s juggernaut of the live service genre isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, the mobile port isn’t going to be sticking around for much longer as Apex Legends Mobile is shutting down on May 1st, 2023.
The move comes to us from a blog post on EA’s site, which states that the reason for this move is that “the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.” While the ability to make in-game purchases was shut off at the time of this announcement, no previously made purchases will be eligible for a refund as confirmed in an FAQ at the bottom of the post. The FAQ also confirms that Apex Legends on other platforms will not be affected.
This decision comes just days after the high-profile delay of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a single-player action-adventure also developed by Respawn. While this alone might not be enough to suggest turmoil within the studio, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg also released a story this week about the recent cancellation of a new single-player title set in the Apex Legends and Titanfall universe.
Schreier’s reporting goes on claim that EA is scrambling to find new projects for the roughly 50 employees assigned to the canceled game. If no such home can be found, they may have to lay some of these employees off. Respawn was one of EA’s most reliable developers during the previous console generation, but this may be a sign that they’ve spread themselves too thin.
