Apex Legends director reveals plans to make it more than a battle royale

Calum Patterson
Horizon on Olympus in Apex Legends

Apex Legends is currently one of the most popular battle royale games in what is a saturated market, going toe-to-toe with Fortnite and Warzone – but developers Respawn Entertainment have plans to make it much more than that.

Apex is currently gearing up for its seventh season, which devs have boasted is their biggest yet in terms of new content, as they release the game’s third map, a new Legend, Horizon, and a host of new features like Clubs and a Steam launch.

However, while the battle royale side of things is going from strength to strength, Respawn are ambitious, and have plans to take their Apex Legends universe to new places.

Their focus might currently still be on the battle royale, but game director Chad Grenier has revealed that the studio has much grander plans for the future.

POI on Olympus in Apex Legends
Apex Legends is moving to a whole new world in Season 7, Olympus on Psamathe.

The future of Apex Legends

In an interview with Eurogamer, Grenier revealed that they are already working on content for up to Season 12 of Apex, as they try to plan as far ahead as possible.

But, beyond just the new seasons of content, there is also a wider view about how they can take their roster of Legends and do new and exciting things. “Right now we’re a battle royale game. I think if you look into the future, we have a lot of conversations of, you know, should we expand beyond battle royale?” Grenier said.

“We have this roster of legends that people love – how else can we use them? I think looking into the future, you’re probably going to see the game becoming more than just a battle royale game. You see we have all these LTMs (limited time modes) and other ways to play. I think that’s a great starting point.”

Horizon running in Apex Legends
Respawn think they can do more with their roster of Legends.

What exactly this could mean is unclear, but we can make a few educated guesses. The most obvious would be some form of PvP multiplayer mode, Call of Duty style. Respawn’s Titanfall series already did this successfully, and many developers at the studio actually worked on the Modern Warfare series at Infinity Ward previously.

The other obvious option would be PvE. They’ve already dabbled their toes in this with the Season 5 quest, which had small single-player ‘missions’ of sorts, but it wasn’t an all-out campaign or story mode as such.

Given the great lore that Apex Legends has already built up through trailers, teaser and comics, it certainly would make sense to give it more gameplay aspects too.

For now, the focus is on Season 7, but it sounds like Apex Legends has big plans to innovate beyond the standard battle royale.

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About The Author

Calum is Dexerto's Managing Editor, based in Scotland. Joining Dexerto in 2017, Calum has years of experience covering esports, gaming and online entertainment, and now leads the team to deliver the best coverage in these areas. An expert on all things Twitch and gaming influencers, he's also an expert in popular shooters like Apex Legends, CS2 and Call of Duty. You can contact Calum at calum.patterson@dexerto.com.