Electronic Arts has announced that Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile are shutting down. Apex Legends Mobile will sunset on May 1, 2023 at 4:00 PM PST. After this point the game will no longer be playable. No date was provided for Battlefield Mobile, but EA said it would stop development. Industrial Toys, the studio behind Battlefield Mobile, is also shutting down completely.
“Despite Apex Mobile’s strong launch, the ongoing experience did not meet our players’ expectations,” EA explained in a statement. “After months of working with our development partner, we have made the mutual decision to discontinue the mobile game.”
EA continued: “We have also made the decision to stop development of the current Battlefield mobile title. As the industry evolved and our idea of creating a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem took shape, we decided to pivot from the current direction to the best of our vision for the franchise and meet the expectations of our players.”
On today’s earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson offered an additional sentence in his prepared remarks that spoke to the possible future of Apex Legends on mobile. “We learned a lot [from Apex Legends Mobile] and we have plans to redefine the connected Apex Mobile experience in the future.”
This seems to indicate that EA may bring Apex Legends back to mobile in some format without Apex Legends Mobile development partner Tencent subsidiary and PUBG Mobile maker Lightspeed Studios.
We have made the decision to discontinue Apex Legends Mobile.
We are sure you have many questions. For more information on where things stand at the moment, including FAQs, please read the blog below.https://t.co/Yjr4EOJnTq pic.twitter.com/4k3dGzOL12
— Respawn (@Respawn) 31 January 2023
Later in the conversation, Wilson gave a much more in-depth answer on why he’s stopping Apex Legends Mobile. He gave three main reasons. The first was related to gameplay:
“There’s a level of immersion and complexity in Apex’s gameplay that is very much what Apex is all about – verticality of gameplay and team-based play – that didn’t translate as well to mobile as we’d hoped.” I think we learned a lot from that.”
On the latter, Wilson said that while Apex Legends Mobile engaged core players and initially attracted new users, it “didn’t retain the more casual user at the speed that we needed, and in a game that relies heavily on team play and competitive play , the liquidity of the overall player base is really, really important when you think about the future player experience over time.”
Finally, Wilson cites a particularly challenging mobile market with “changing player personalities,” making it difficult to capture. However, he reiterated EA’s interest in returning to Apex on mobile, albeit with a different approach.
“The biggest new launches that have the most success are the ones that are deeply connected to the wider franchise, where there’s not always cross-play, but certainly cross-progression and a sense of being part of a unified community and a unified unified gaming experience.”
Wilson then indicated that EA is also thinking the same way about Battlefield Mobile, which could similarly return in the future.
“Of course, since we had those lessons from Apex Legends and were developing into Battlefield Mobile, we expected that while Battlefield had also been in development for a while and was making good progress, given the build of that game, it would probably also run into some of the same challenges,” Wilson said. “And rather than continue to push against that, we wanted to step back, take a breath, reset and really think about the broader franchise strategy and allow management to build a truly immersive cross-platform gaming experience around reimagined Battlefield in the future.”
EA said it will also continue to work on Battlefield 2042 and is in pre-production on future Battlefield games. Back in September, it was revealed that Halo veteran Marcus Lehto would lead Ridgeline Games to develop new Battlefield narrative campaigns.
Starting today, Apex Legends will be removed from existing storefronts and all real money in-app purchases will be disabled. However, players can continue to spend their existing Syndicate Gold and continue playing until May 1st. This exclusion is specific to the mobile version and will not affect other platforms. Also, no refunds will be given.
In IGN’s review of Apex Legends Mobile, we said, “Apex Legends Mobile showcases Respawn’s knack for creating unique and polished FPS experiences, even on a mobile platform. While the controls are a bit lacking, Apex Mobile sets the bar for mobile FPS gaming with its ability to keep Apex’s iconic movement mechanics and core unique Battle Royale experience intact.”
Update, 01/31: This story has been updated to include multiple statements from Andrew Wilson on EA’s Q3 earnings call and the news that Industrial Toys has closed.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He has been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR and Variety.
When he’s not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Additional reporting by Rebecca Valentine.