Brace for impact, a "new arms race" is about to hit the gaming world. The "new arms race" involves some of the industry’s most competitive and creative studios, along with their Earth-shocking gaming titles. "Fortnite," the widely popular battle royale game that took the gaming world by storm, is about to meet its first serious competitor, the newly-released "Apex Legends."
The new challenger has been developed by the same studio that created the widely popular first-person shooter Titanfall. Respawn Entertainment has first announced this free-to-play game on February 4 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One console.
The new game has quickly captured the heart and minds of millions of players around the world. More than 2 million players downloaded this new free-to-play battle royal game during the first day of its initial release. "Apex Legends" has already reached incredible height, hitting over 10 million players in less than 72 hours, Fortune reported. In contrast, it took "Fortnite" about two weeks to reach the 10 million players mark.
But the most surprising part of the Apex story is not the number itself, it’s the exponential nature of the game’s growth during its early stage, a nearly impossible goal for a game that hasn’t even been out for a week. That massive growth has made Apex a leading contender and a potential killer of the current battle royale champ, "Fortnite."
For Respawn, it was a risky gamble but a bold action.
Respawn’s "Titanfall" franchise has seen better days, but the arrival of the battle royale-style games introduced new challenges for many gaming studios. Overshadowed by these fast-growing battle royale games, Respawn has decided to jump on the battle royale bandwagon but with a whole new twist and some added creativity. For the game publisher EA, the timing of the launch is great.
EA is currently facing some financial challenges and poor market performance.
Epic Games' 'Fortnite' strikes back
Epic Games, the company behind the successful battle royale title "Fortnite," has finally acknowledged its latest emerging threat and marked "Apex Legends" as its first serious competitor. In fact, the studio has upped its advertising effort following the successful launch of "Apex Legends" earlier this week.
According to ComicBook, many are wondering if the new battle royale game is here to take on the reigning battle royale champ "Fortnite." However, Fortnite News recently learned that there some weird things happen on the internet. The website said that gamers who search for Apex Legends on the Google search bar will likely see a link to the Fortnite website, prompting them to download and try the "Fortnite" game. The most surprising thing about this story is that the Fortnite link appears at the very top of the Google search result.
For some analysts, this only means one thing- Epic Games is now getting more serious about their advertising and marketing campaign. Epic Games is making aggressive moves here, paying a decent amount of money to gain control of the top search when players try to search for a specific keyword or phrase.
By using this very important keyword, "Fortnite" may get the chance to keep its new competitor at bay, thus preventing "Apex Legends" from making a damaging effect to Fortnite business.
Currently, it still unclear if "Apex Legends" will be the next game that tries to dethrone the reigning champ from its seat or if it will be crushed like the other Fortnite competitors. But the positive media already pours some salve on EA’s bleeding. The company has finally got a rescue in the form of the newly launched "Apex Legends." Overall, it still a huge year for many gamers as more and more studios have finally joined the battle royale bandwagon.
EA confirms more titles, including works on a new Titanfall game
In other gaming-related stories, the game publisher has finally confirmed plans to add updates to new games that will be released to the market in 2019 and 2020. This includes more content for newly released games like the free-to-play battle royale game "Apex Legends," which already reached 10 million players, and the upcoming first-person shooter "Anthem."
EA also hinted at what seems to be a new "Titanfall" game. However, EA hasn’t shared much information about this upcoming game. The company remains tight-lipped about this story.
"Titanfall" was developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
It is a popular gaming franchise and has managed to build a massive user base. Unfortunately, Respawn hasn’t made any follow up to the success of "Titanfall 2" and players have been asking for a sequel.
In addition to Apex and a new "Titanfall" game, EA has also planned to launch a new "Star Wars" game that will be released before 2020. The company’s chief financial officer also released a statement, confirming plans for new Titanfall experience, a new "Plants vs. Zombies" game and a new "Need for Speed" title. EA hopes the release of these new titles will help the company regain its footing in the market. EA is currently facing increased competition in the market and its latest financial reports showed nothing but bad figures and poor performance.
