EA wants to increase the pace of Apex Legends updates ahead of $1bn milestone

Electronic Arts has expressed ever-growing interest in Respawn increasing how many updates and major events they ship in Apex Legends as their popular battle royale title races towards a new $1bn milestone.

Apex Legends continues to rake in money for Electronic Arts, the gaming giants have revealed in their second-quarter 2022 earnings call with investors.

Since its release in 2019, the battle royale has made more than $1.6 billion USD via cosmetics, character packs, and Apex coin sales. The game, which hit new heights for most active players in Seasons 9 and 10, is now on the verge of making $1 billion every year, executive Andrew Wilson announced.

The monster earnings have certainly tickled EA’s fancy.

The Californian company has already cranked up its revenue targets for 2022, and is now expecting to make $7.64bn across their wheelhouse, which includes flagship titles like Apex Legends and the FIFA sports franchise.

On top of that, Wilson has announced EA is very interested in “delivering more content” in Apex Legends via updates and new events, as long as it “makes sense.”

Apex Legends has settled into a fairly regular scheduled content-wise over the past few seasons, so many changes to the status quo there would see a significant increase in new skins, map updates, and game balance.

Recent seasons have seen Respawn follow the same guideline: a major Apex Legends seasonal update that introduces characters, guns, and in the case of Season 11 this week, a whole new battle royale map. Character-focused Collection events like “Evolution” or “Genesis” then act as Apex’s mid-season releases.

One thing that the Apex Legends devs have already begun working on is the return of limited-time modes (LTMs), which have been absent in recent updates. These popular playlists are returning this season.

• Read More: Apex is changing how kills & deaths work for quitters

Respawn developer Steven Ferreira confirmed the return last week: “I’m not going to spoil what they are, but we will get more LTMs and events this season, for sure.”

Loyal Apex Legends players haven’t exactly been starved of content in their favorite battle royale over the last few months either. Just this week, the Season 11 update added Ash ⁠— an old Titanfall villain updated for the game ⁠— as well as a new SMG, and the immense and tropical Storm Point map.

• Read More: Apex Legends players call for bigger Storm Point lobbies

This season will also see the Apex Legends Market crossover finally get underway, and Respawn is even open to bringing Titans to the game eventually.