EA is making plans to make major changes to Apex Legends designed to address subdued player engagement and overlooked revenue goals.
“We’re at a point where we’re managing the current trajectory of the business,” CEO Andrew Wilson said Tuesday during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
“But we believe that, given the strength of the brand, the size of the global community, the position we occupy in the top tier of these free-to-play live service games, we will be able to return that to growth.” in the business aspect over time.”
Wilson said Apex Legends season 22, which launched in early August, had lived up to expectations.
“Following the changes to the Battle Pass build, we didn’t see the increase in monetization that we expected,” he said.
“Two things have become clear in the free FPS category. First, in the competitive landscape where branding, a strong player base, and high-quality mechanics matter more than ever, Apex has proven to be a compelling franchise for us and an industry stalwart.
“Second, to drive significant growth and new engagement, major systematic changes are required. “We will continue to focus on retention and breadth of content in service of our global community as we work towards more significant and innovative changes in the future.”
During a Q&A consultation, EA was necessarily asked to explain the pros and cons of gradually improving the game in its current form, rather than completely rebuilding the name and releasing “something like an Apex 2.0.”
“It’s a really good question and probably beyond the scope of this conversation, but what I would say is that typically, what we’ve seen in the context of games driven by live services at scale, is that Version 2 has almost never been so successful.” like version 1,” Wilson responded.
“And so, really, the goal right now is to ensure that we continue to support the global player base that we have and offer them new, innovative and creative content season after season, as well as build these other things, but build them in a way so that players do not have to give up the progress they have made or the investment they have made in the existing ecosystem.
“Any time we make a global community of players have to choose between the investments they have made to date and creativity in future innovation, that is never a good place to put our community, so our goal will be to continue to innovate.” in the core experience, and you’re seeing it from season to season as our seasons get bigger and bigger and we’re changing key gameplay types within those seasons.
“And then create additional opportunities to engage in different modes of play beyond what the current core mechanic offers, and we believe that we can do those two things together, and we won’t believe that we have to separate the experience to be able to do that.” but again, the team is working on this now.”
