Apex Legends Mobile
Game
Documents about Apex Legends Mobile
2023’s Most-Read Stories: Unity’s Runtime Fee Fiasco, Playtika, Apex Legends Mobile and More
The mobile games industry experienced a tumultuous 2023, characterized by significant corporate controversies, studio closures, and shifting monetization strategies.
- Unity’s 2023 'Runtime Fee' policy triggered a massive developer backlash, resulting in a partial pricing reversal, a decline in its ad exchange business by up to 30%, and the eventual departure of CEO John Riccitiello.
- EA signaled a broader industry trend of studio closures and layoffs in January 2023 by canceling 'Apex Legends Mobile' and shuttering the 'Battlefield Mobile' developer Industrial Toys after the game's revenue flatlined.
- Playtika suspended all new game development in early 2023, citing an unfavorable marketing landscape and poor ROI, reflecting a wider industry shift toward consolidation and optimization of existing assets.
Is It Time to Rethink the “Game of the Year” Award for Mobile?
The mobile gaming industry’s current approach to "Game of the Year" (GOTY) awards is fundamentally flawed due to a disconnect between creative recognition and actual business performance.
- Current 'Game of the Year' awards for mobile games fail to correlate with sustained spikes in downloads or revenue, as performance trends are primarily driven by seasonal content and marketing events.
- Analysis of Marvel SNAP, Apex Legends Mobile, and Genshin Impact between 2021 and 2023 shows that award wins are additive at best rather than causal drivers of commercial success.
- The existing awards framework is criticized as a marketing vehicle for platforms like Apple and Google rather than an objective measure of creative quality or business performance.
Market Wire: February 6, 2023
The February 6, 2023, industry update provides a critical analysis of the current state of the video game market, focusing on the challenges facing AAA development, the characteristics of high-revenue mobile titles, and the strategic rationale behind recent mobile game shutdowns.
- AAA game development faces a profitability crisis as titles require massive player bases to succeed while competing for limited attention, leading to a significant decline in market value for companies like Ubisoft, whose stock fell from 82.40€ in January 2021 to 18.59€ by January 2023.
- Industry experts suggest a shift toward 'AA' tier games or the 'Rockstar model' of hyper-successful, long-term engagement titles as potential solutions to the current AAA development challenges.
- EA CEO Andrew Wilson attributed the shutdown of Apex Legends Mobile to a failure to translate complex, team-based gameplay to mobile and an inability to retain casual users, rather than a lack of cross-platform connectivity.
What Really Happened with Apex Legends Mobile
The cancellation of Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile represents a significant strategic pivot for Electronic Arts, signaling the end of its recent mobile shooter ambitions.
- Electronic Arts cancelled Apex Legends Mobile despite the title achieving a $100 million annual run rate and winning critical industry awards.
- The decision to shutter the game was driven by a failure to meet internal financial expectations and a strategic pivot away from mobile shooter ambitions.
- Apex Legends Mobile struggled to gain traction due to market saturation from entrenched competitors like PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, and Call of Duty Mobile.
Market Wire: February 2, 2023
The February 2, 2023, market analysis examines the strategic failures leading to the cancellation of Electronic Arts’ mobile titles, specifically Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, alongside the closure of the Industrial Toys studio.
- Electronic Arts has canceled both Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, resulting in the closure of the Industrial Toys studio.
- Apex Legends Mobile, despite winning Apple’s and Google Play’s Game of the Year awards for 2022, failed to sustain revenue growth and will shut down within 90 days of the February 2023 announcement.
- Data indicates that Apex Legends Mobile suffered from poor monetization, with revenue per download significantly trailing top-grossing titles like Call of Duty Mobile.
EA’s Respawn to Shut Down Apex Legends Mobile in May
Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment announced the discontinuation of Apex Legends Mobile, effective May 1, 2023. The decision to sunset the title came just one year after its global launch on May 17, 2022.
- Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment will shut down Apex Legends Mobile on May 1, 2023, at 4 p.m. PDT.
- Respawn cited a failure to maintain the necessary standards for content quality, quantity, and update cadence as the primary reason for the game's closure.
- The mobile title, which was co-developed with Tencent’s Lightspeed Studios, operated for only one year following its launch on May 17, 2022.
Market Wire: December 5, 2022
This market analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the video game industry as of early December 2022, focusing on performance trends, platform dynamics, and emerging technological shifts.
- Mobile gaming revenue is cooling after its pandemic-era peak, with worldwide consumer spend dropping from a high of $7.73 billion in July 2021 to $6.5 billion in September 2022, though it remains above pre-pandemic levels.
- Apple and Google named Apex Legends Mobile their game of the year, a decision driven by the title's ability to showcase high-end hardware performance and avoid the negative PR associated with aggressive monetization seen in competitors like Diablo Immortal.
- The gaming industry saw significant consolidation in 2022, marked by major acquisitions including Microsoft’s bid for Activision Blizzard, Sony’s purchase of Bungie, and Take-Two’s acquisition of Zynga.
Apex Legends Mobile: Fighting the Competition
Apex Legends Mobile serves as a high-fidelity, squad-based battle royale experience designed to translate the core mechanics of its PC predecessor into a mobile-first environment.
- Japan is the most lucrative market for Apex Legends Mobile, generating 42% of lifetime revenue with an average revenue per download (RPD) of $3.70, significantly higher than the $0.75 RPD in the United States.
- Apex Legends Mobile utilizes a hero-based system that differentiates it from competitors like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile, allowing for deeper lore-based immersion and unique character-specific perk trees.
- The game employs a generous onboarding process that uses AI-controlled bots for the first 8 to 14 levels, ensuring new players have 4 to 6 hours of gameplay before facing real human opponents.
Bungie Reportedly Working on Destiny Mobile in Partnership with NetEase
Bungie is reportedly collaborating with NetEase to develop a new first-person shooter (FPS) mobile title based on the Destiny intellectual property.
- Bungie is developing a new, original first-person shooter mobile game based on the Destiny intellectual property in partnership with NetEase.
- The project has been in development for over two years and represents a strategic effort to expand the Destiny brand into the high-growth mobile gaming market.
- This collaboration builds on a 2018 financial relationship where NetEase invested $100 million in Bungie.
Mobile Game Market Review: May 2022
The mobile game market in May 2022 was characterized by significant global launches and a continued emphasis on retention-focused features and cooperative gameplay.
- Apex Legends Mobile launched globally in May 2022, reaching the top 23 in US grossing charts and the top 50 in Japan.
- The Chinese mobile market is seeing an accelerating trend of games incorporating roguelike elements, with three new top-200 grossing entrants in May alone featuring or claiming to feature the mechanic.
- Netmarble’s MMORPG Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds achieved a top 50 grossing position in the US immediately following its global launch.
Apex Legends Mobile Success: Genius Marketing or the Power of a Name?
The rapid market entry of Apex Legends Mobile serves as a case study in balancing established brand equity with aggressive, multi-channel user acquisition strategies.
- Apex Legends Mobile achieved over 5 million downloads within its first five days of release, split between 2.4 million on Google Play and 2.9 million on the App Store.
- The game secured the number one spot in 6 Google Play categories and 4 App Store categories within 48 hours of its May 17, 2022, global launch.
- Electronic Arts executed an aggressive two-month pre-launch marketing campaign that generated over 90,000 Twitter followers, averaging 1,500 new subscribers daily.
Apex Legends Reaches Over $2 Billion in Lifetime Revenue
Electronic Arts achieved significant financial growth for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, driven primarily by the robust performance of its live service offerings.
- Apex Legends surpassed $2 billion in lifetime net bookings, achieving a 40% year-over-year increase driven by the success of Season 12.
- Electronic Arts reported total net bookings of $7.5 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, a 21% increase over the previous year.
- Live services now account for 71% of Electronic Arts' total revenue, reflecting a 17% growth in that segment.