Electronic Arts thinks that the free-to-play battle royale game (Apex Legends) that came out this week will not be competing with Battlefield V‘s upcoming battle royale mode called Firestorm.
We don’t understand why Respawn and DICE have been put into a face-off situation. In 2016, after the launch of Titanfall 2, in just mere weeks, Battlefield 1 also hit the stores, causing Respawn’s game to sell badly. Now, the roles are reversed – DICE’s World War II FPS’ battle royale game mode will arrive in March (which is why Electronic Arts believes why it sold under their expectations…).
„What we have seen is that the community who plays these types of games is hundreds of millions of people strong. Given the size of the community, given the different types of gameplay even with the battle royale genre, we believe those two modes will fit very well together in the community. We think that there is an opportunity to deliver the fast-paced gameplay that is Apex Legends and where that game goes to a big part of the community. Also, the strategic play, the vehicle play, the things that are unique to the Battlefield battle royale mode, will offer differentiation of play for a different part of that community,” Andrew Wilson, the CEO of Electronic Arts said.
Apex Legends hit 2.5 million players in 24 hours, and Wilson also said (we won’t quote him directly from this point!) that since its launch, Apex Legends has been the game with the most viewers on Twitch. They plan to make eSports-aimed game modes for the Respawn-developed game. They also have ideas to expand to mobile and make cross-play happen – in other words, Wilson wants to achieve more than one hundred million players in the future. (Only to give them microtransactions and loot boxes for more profit…)
However, there’s something he did not mention: Battlefield V is not a free game. Apex Legends is free-to-play. By default, it has more reach, and thus, it’s likely that Respawn’s game will laugh at DICE’s battle royale player statistics…
Source: DualShockers, WCCFTech
