The competition game to Fortnite developed by EA developer studio Respawn Entertainment turned into a real surprise success within a very short time. In the meantime, ten million players have tried the free action game.
The free game was released on the 4th of February. The usual marketing marathon did not take place in the run-up to the release, which makes the very good download figures even more astonishing. Available for Windows PCs, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Apex Legends offers Battle-Royal, as does its major competitor Fortnite. The most important difference is that the players in “Apex Legends” do not play alone, but in teams of three.
Players reported that automatic matchmaking has worked very well so far. Also the communication with the teammates works perfectly. A menu is available for this purpose, which can also be used to issue commands without verbal communication. So far the game has met with great approval, both in terms of content and technique. This is also expressed in the rapidly growing number of streams and let’s plays that can be found on various video platforms, above all on Twitch.tv.
The surprise success is extremely convenient for the development studio, which was taken over by EA in 2015 for 455 million US dollars. Since the takeover by the giant player Respawn Entertainment did not succeed in commercial success. The two parts of the Titan case series published so far were praised by the critics, but were financially flops. At the end of 2019 a new game is to be launched on the market, which could now profit from the success of “Apex Legends” – after all, the surprise success increases the awareness of the developer studio enormously. In addition, the game “Jedi Fallen Empire”, which plays in the Star Wars universe, will be released very soon. Here, too, developers could benefit from synergy effects.
However, there is potential for conflict between Respawn Entertainment and the studio “Bioware”, which also belongs to EA and will release the multiplayer game “Anthem” in February. Although the games differ both in content and concept, there is likely to be a large overlap between the target groups, which means that potential players will either have to split their time between the two games or choose one of them. It remains to be seen how the success of “Apex Legends” will affect the sales and player numbers of “Anthem”.
