Electronic Arts are about to release their entry to the battle royal gaming genre. The company is currently rumored to be working on a new battle royale game for their multiplayer first-person shooter game "Titanfall." This means that EA finally has a weapon to counter Epic Games’ widely popular "Fortnite" and Bluehole’s "PUBG." The rumored new game has not been officially announced yet, but multiple websites reported on it this week.
The free-to-play "Titanfall" spinoff is set in the vast "Titanfall" universe and will release on Monday, January 4.
Gaming journalist Rod Breslau reported today that this new game will be called "Apex Legends." It will be released across all three major gaming platforms, the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
EA has been playing catch-up with other gaming studios when it comes to battle royale games. The company has yet to produce a credible contender in the new gaming arms race. The closest thing EA has in the battle royal table is its newly announced "Battlefield V" battle royale mode, which until now still delayed.
What to expect from this new battle royale game
According to the gaming website Kotaku, the rumors were first started when a group of gaming streamers sent some information to eSports insider Rod Breslau. That information advised streamers and eSports pros about a gaming event in Los Angeles.
The information also mentioned the name of the event to play in LA. Gamers who attended the LA event told Breslau that the new game felt good and that they were pretty excited about the new "Titanfall" game.
As mentioned earlier by VG247, the upcoming battle royale game "Apex Legends" will feature three-player teams, with a maximum number of up to 60 players on a gaming server.
Like the other popular competitive games, "Fortnite" and "Overwatch," "Apex Legends" will also include cosmetic items as well as in-game content. It will be monetized using an Overwatch-like micro transaction model. This hints at potential loot boxes, but that matter hasn’t been confirmed yet.
As expected by many fans, the new "Apex Legends" will be a free-to-play battle royal game.
Players will receive MOBA-like hero abilities and play either in single-play mode or in a team of three as the players battle for survival in the new gaming environment. Unfortunately, fans will not get those iconic Titans or those huge lumbering mechs, which make the game "Titanfall" a very popular shooter game. Instead, EA is adding some new ingredient, focusing more on the high-speed, kinetic infantry gameplay of "Titanfall."
The name "Apex Legends" is no longer new in the gaming industry. Last year, EA was reported that they filed for the Apex Legends trademark. In addition, there’s also a new PlayApex placeholder site, according to Forbes.
Apex Legends could be the third Titanfall game
Back in 2017, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reported a story about EA’s purchase of Respawn, the gaming studio behind the shooter franchise "Titanfall.
" Kotaku said that the move was forced by a Nexon bid for the game studio and may also have some direct connection to the Visceral’s closure. The website also learned that at the time of the acquisition, Respawn’s upcoming "Titanfall 3" was well into development and that Respawn is looking for a potential release by 2018. "Titanfall 3" is the studio’s next and third entry to its multiplayer shooter game series "Titanfall."
Unfortunately, according to Kotaku’s reports, the game’s underlying technology was starting to feel dated. This means that "Titanfall 3" may not look or feel good when released to the market. This is just like the two previous Titanfall games, which used a modified version of Valve’s Source engine.
Many analysts speculate that EA plans to switch engines for their next "Titanfall" game. This would result in the release of "Apex Legends," which will be used as a stopgap as the company pushed back the release of the third "Titanfall" game. During EA’s Q2 fiscal year 2019 investor call, the company Chief Financial Officer, Blake Jorgensen, confirmed that the newly acquired Respawn Entertainment has been working on multiple titles, including "Titanfall 3."
