During Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial conference call, CEO Andrew Wilson discussed the closure of apex legends mobile.
First of all, it seems that the closing game is not the last mobile. apex legends experience that people will enjoy. Wilson explained that the developer learned a lot and has “plans to reimagine a connected Apex mobile experience in the future.”
Wilson explained the reasons behind the decision to shut down the game.
“This game has been in development for a long period of time as the expectation for the size, scale and complexity of mobile gaming continues to grow as the platform continues to mature over time. As we look at it, we really we compartmentalized it into a few key categories.
First of all, as you point out, this was a really good game made by really good teams, winning game of the year on both Apple and Android devices, which is an extraordinary achievement given the number of games that are made, but a couple of things were also true within that. One is that there’s a level of immersion and complexity to Apex gameplay in particular, which has a lot to do with Apex, the verticality of the game, and team play that didn’t translate as well to mobile as we’d hoped. I think we’ve learned a lot from that.
Second, the game wanted to engage the core deeply and actually attracted a lot of new users, which we think says a lot about the franchise’s potential for future success. It didn’t retain the most casual user at the rate we needed, and in a game that relies heavily on team play and competitive play, the liquidity of the general player base is very, very important when you think about the future. player experience over time.
And then thirdly, I think the mobile market continues to be a challenge. We launched into what was a softer mobile market, and with some player personalities that change and evolve as we go.”
He then provided more information about how the company plans to reimagine the apex legends mobile experience.
“So as we think about this going forward, we take those learnings and apply the real strength, which is, we know Apex is in incredible demand from both core users and more casual new users. We know they have the underlying ingredients to make it an amazing game. We need to be thoughtful about the nature of core game mechanics and retention mechanics that we build into the game over time. And most importantly, looking at the mobile market, the more new The releases that are having the most success are the ones that are deeply connected to the larger franchise, where there isn’t always cross-play, but it certainly is cross-progression and a feeling that you are part of a single unified community and a single unified experience. of game”.
Lastly, he reported on the cancellation of the mobile battlefield game, also hinting at plans to reimagine the experience.
“Battlefield (Mobile) had also been in development for some time and was making good progress, given the build of that game, it would probably run into some of the same challenges as well, and rather than continue to push against that, I wanted to go back, take a breather, reboot and really think about the broader franchise strategy and allow leadership to build a truly immersive cross-platform gaming experience around a reimagined battlefield going forward, both of which represent strong learning opportunities for us Both of those things represent an ability for us, the company, to lean into large franchises in a way that makes the mobile market more aligned for the future.”
If you’re interested in Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial results, you can read our dedicated article with all the details.