With launches for likes of Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 arriving this year, it's perhaps no surprise that many are beginning to wonder whether not Apex Legends 2 will ever be a thing as well.
After all, it has been nearly four years since Respawn Entertainment's free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter first launched.
Here's the breakdown of whether or not there will ever be an Apex Legends 2.
Will There be an Apex Legends 2?
Of course, at the time of publication, there have yet to be any leaks or announcements confirming the existence of an Apex Legends sequel.
However, the answer has perhaps already been made clear by Respawn devs on at least two recorded instances over the years.
In a June 2019 interview with USGamer, former Respawn executive producer Drew McCoy mentioned at the time that the studio doesn't see the need for Apex to ever need a sequel if it lives up to its live-service billing.
"I mean, most people don't realize how long it takes to make anything," McCoy said, "and so a character for us takes about a year and a half to make. ... We have so much stuff in the pipe right now coming that people are always like, 'So what are you guys gonna do for this or that?' Like dude, we're thinking years ahead at this point. We do believe in this game as a live game. We're never gonna make an Apex 2; hoping next Season 72 is awesome. That's kind of where our head is at: how are we setting this up for the long term."
If the notorious March 2022 Apex leak suggested anything, it sure seems to be that McCoy wasn't lying, considering how many unreleased Legends already appear to be lined up for release in the years to come.
Thirteen seasons and over three years later, it appears Respawn's thinking on the matter hasn't skipped a beat.
In February right before the launch of Season 12: Defiance, Respawn game director Steven Ferreira explained to The Washington Post how there still isn't a sequel in the works for Apex Legends.
"We don’t think of an endgame," Ferreira said. "We don’t see any reason to reboot the franchise or put out a sequel. We want to continue to have Apex grow perpetually. We think that there’s a lot of runway in terms of the creative space within the universe that we’ve developed.
"There’s way more still out there that we want to try than we can actually plot out and think of on a calendar. So right now, there’s no plans to sequel it. And there’s no plans to sunset it either. We’ve just got more and more good ideas — hopefully good ideas — that we’re excited to try."
Ultimately, if you're an Apex Legends fan, these comments likely aren't surprising considering how the game has turned out.
When Apex Legends was first released, it was one of the few live-service battle royale games out there, following in the footsteps of just PUBG: Battlegrounds and Fortnite dominating the space.
Since then, things have obviously changed, yet Apex finds itself with over $2 billion in revenue earned and its personal all-time highest concurrent player count records on Steam being topped routinely.
The only real reason for a live-service game to get a sequel is to introduce massive overhauls to content structures and gameplay, as seen with both Overwatch 2 and Warzone 2.0.
There are certainly plenty of major features left in the tank that Apex Legends could implement, whether it's cross-progression, competitive changes or even loadouts.
However, being that Respawn has pretty much stayed true to its word and procedurally updated Apex's running list of characters, weapons and maps — instead of removing or overhauling them entirely like a lot of their competitors — it would be quite a surprise to hear about an Apex Legends 2 announcement ever going down.
This article was originally published on dbltap as Will There be an Apex Legends 2?.
