Apex Legends Mobile is shutting down, less than a year after it was released. In a tweet, developer Respawn Entertainment confirmed its decision to sunset the futuristic battle royale game on Android and iOS, across all regions on May 2 — merely a few weeks before its one-year anniversary. The game will be rendered unplayable at 4:30am IST on that day, with the developer disabling all in-app purchases and removing the title from the store today. All existing purchases will be available to use in the 90-day window leading up to Apex Legends Mobile’s closure. Additionally, publisher EA also ceased development on its Battlefield mobile title, closing down its studio Industrial Toys altogether.
“Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game,” the blog post from Respawn Entertainment reads. The studio also notes that they are “excited” about the mobile platform as a whole and will continue looking for new opportunities in there. Any existing in-game virtual currency — Syndicate gold — will remain in your account and can be used until May 2. That said, EA warns that it won’t offer refunds for any of the “real money purchases.”
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EA refers to the terms mentioned in its user agreement, as an excuse not to provide refunds. On the flip side, we’ve got Epic Games and Iron Galaxy’s Rumbleverse, which also recently announced a shutdown plan slated for February 28. Players who spent money on that game is eligible for a refund across all platforms — be it the battle pass or Brawlla Bills (in-game currency) — though specifics on the same will be revealed in time. During an earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson offered an update that hints at a possible future for Apex Legends on mobile. “We have learned a great deal and have plans to reimagine a connected Apex Mobile experience in the future,” he said (via IGN).
In the call, Wilson also gave an in-depth answer for why Apex Legends Mobile was being shut down. “There is a level of immersion and complexity to Apex gameplay in particular which is very much what Apex is about — verticality of gameplay and team-based play — that didn’t translate quite as well to mobile devices as we had hoped. I think we learned a great deal from that,” he added. The decision is platform-specific only, with services for Apex Legends on PC and console continuing to run smoothly.
As stated before, EA has also stopped development on the Battlefield mobile game, announced back in April 2021. “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,” a statement from the publisher reads. Battlefield as a franchise has been undergoing some big changes recently, with new studio Ridgeline Games heading the campaign segment of the upcoming games. The studio is headlined by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. Additionally, Vince Zampella, CEO, Respawn Entertainment — known for Titanfall and the aforementioned Apex Legends — was put in charge of Battlefield, with the central goal of building a connected universe.
Wilson claimed that EA halted work on the mobile version to “really think about the broader franchise strategy and allow the leadership to build a true cross-platform immersive game experience around a reimagined Battlefield in the future.” For now, the studio will continue working on evolving the tarnished Battlefield 2042, which was released to poor critical response.