Apex Legends came out of nowhere. Leaked over the weekend, Respawn Entertainment officially revealed and released the free-to-play squad-based battle royale title in its entirety yesterday. By all accounts, it seems to offer things that are quite unique to the battle royale genre, and bolstered by the fact that it costs nothing, should do well for both parties.
Respawn’s Mackey McCandlish, design director on the title, certainly seems confident that that can happen. Recently, while speaking with VG247, McCandlish said that he expects Apex Legends to be a game that can stick around and continue to be active and successful for as many as ten years, bringing up examples such as League of Legends.
“We want this to be a ten-year game,” he said. “It’s egotistical to say that; they said the same thing when they made Destiny. And with League of Legends, they say: ‘How do we make this something people play forever, not something that trails off a bit over the next ten years?’ There’s so much opportunity in this universe, there’s so much opportunity in this young genre, and I love playing it so much. We play the game for hours every day.”
McCandlish went on to talk about how in his own person experience, he’s been continuously playing and dying to play even more of Apex Legends since around 2017, even during the playtest phase.
“I have already been playing this game in a form close enough to what it is and dying to play more since late 2017 when it started turning into the game it is today,” said McCandlish. “I’m sad when the playtest ends. That’s a first for any game I’ve worked on. I’ve made a lot of games. I tended to work on the story – the campaign more so than the multiplayer until we made Titanfall – so I’ve worked on a lot of games that were about putting on a great show: something you consume. And this is the first game I’ve worked on that’s more like the multiplayer I just want to keep playing.”
If Apex Legends’ early performance is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that the game is – at the very least – off to a great start. Not only did it top Twitch viewership charts within an hour of its launch, within just 8 hours, it had been played by over million unique players. Now to see if this can continue.
Apex Legends is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.