EA shutting down Apex Legends Mobile and no refunds

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Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has announced that the mobile version of the game will be discontinued in all regions on May 1st, a few weeks before its one-year anniversary. As if that wasn’t bad news enough for players, he also said that once the game is over, any items or add-ons they’ve purchased will appear in Apex Legends Mobile as well. EA shared the news about the change as part of its earnings results for the third quarter of fiscal 2020.

A news release from the company described the closure as a “joint decision” reached with its “development partner”; Apex Legends Mobile is developed by Respawn and Tencent’s Lightspeed & Quantum Studios, which also handles the mobile port of PUBG. Respawn’s post reiterates that observation but begins by claiming, “After a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to lower this bar in terms of quality, quantity, and tempo.”

Since its launch, Apex Legends Mobile has had a reputation for adding mods that players would have wanted to see in the full game, with additional abilities for existing Legends, new game modes, and a pair of mobile-exclusive Legends, Fade and Rhapsody.

As of 4 p.m. ET Tuesday, you can no longer purchase real-money items in the game, and the game will also be pulled from the app stores. It will officially close at 7 PM ET on May 1st.

However, EA does not offer any refunds for real money purchases, “in accordance with the terms of the EA User Agreement,” the company wrote in its FAQ. This may sound like a slap in the face to people who have invested their money in the game, and it seems particularly screwy from EA when developer Iron Galaxy offers to refund players for their Rumbleverse purchases prior to the just-announced shutdown of that game.

However, it appears that there may be some form of Apex on mobile in the future. On EA’s earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson said that EA and the development partner chose to cancel this “version” of the game and that the company has “plans to reimagine the connected Apex mobile experience in the future.” Later in the call, Wilson added that mobile will be a “future growth vector” for the Apex series.

EA is also halting development of its planned Battlefield mobile game, which it announced in April 2021. “As the industry has evolved and our strategy has been shaping to create a deeply interconnected Battlefield ecosystem, we’ve decided to shift from the current trend to best perform around our vision for the franchise and meet the expectations of our players,” EA wrote in a post. Tell me on their website.

The company has made a number of changes to the Battlefield franchise following the poor debut of Battlefield 2042, including putting Respawn president Vince Zampella in charge of the franchise and announcing a new narrative campaign in the works from a new studio, Ridgeline Games. “We’re working hard on developing Battlefield 2042, and we’re in pre-production for our future Battlefield experiences in our studios around the world,” EA said in their post.

I’d also like to draw your attention once again to the “Deeply Connected Battlefield Ecosystem” language from the EA post. Based on the company’s earnings call, it looks as if EA’s mobile strategy for Battlefield and Apex will be to tie it up with other games in those franchises down the line.

“As we look at the mobile market, the biggest new launches that are experiencing the most success are those that are closely related to [a] wider franchise,” Wilson said. “Not always there is crossover, but definitely crossover progression and a sense of being part of a unified community and one unified game experience.”

Regarding Battlefield, Wilson said the company has paused work on the game to allow the company to “really think about the broader franchise strategy and allow leadership to build a true cross-platform gaming experience around a reimagined Battlefield of the future.”

On Tuesday, the company also announced that it was delaying Star Wars Jedi: Survivor from March to April. And on the earnings call, COO Laura Miele said The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, EA’s upcoming mobile game set in the LOTR universe, will launch this year.

Update January 31st, 6:32PM ET: Added more details from EA’s earnings call.

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