APEX LEGENDS MOBILE! Tencent And EA Games Are Making Apex Legends Mobile
1Tencent is following up their massive success with PUBGM with another battle royale on mobile devices. This time, they will be responsible for the success of Apex Legends Mobile.
Apex Legends Mobile will be coming this year, as promised by Electronic Arts (EA). This should come before October 2021 if plans are followed. However, it won’t just be EA working on the mobile version of the battle royale game anymore. They will be tapping Tencent, the massive giant in the video game industry.
Tencent has its hands on many of the video game industry’s biggest assets. This includes TiMi Studios. TiMi Studios developed extremely popular and successful games such as Honor of Kings (Arena of Valor), Activision’s Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM), and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground Army Attack (PUBG Army Attack). PUBG Army Attack is just the less popular of Tencent’s two PUBG adaptations on mobile. Still, this doesn’t change the fact that Tencent is the mother company of the developers who made PUBG Mobile, Lightspeed & Quantum Studio. They definitely can handle a title like Apex Legends.
The success of these games, not only in China but in the global market as well, is a testament to Tencent’s mastery over mobile games. This may be the reason why EA has decided to team up with them. Neither EA nor Tencent has commented on this yet, but sources told IGN India about this relationship. According to the unnamed source, EA’s Respawn, the developers of Apex Legends on consoles and PC, supervises the development of the mobile version of Apex Legends. However, Tencent is the one doing the actual development of the game.
Meanwhile, Apex Legends may be coming to the Nintendo Switch earlier than on mobile devices. EA has previously announced that the Nintendo Switch port will be coming out on March 9, 2021.
With Apex Legends Mobile slated for a 2021 release on Android and iOS, details regarding what to expect from it are scarce. However some information on what to expect from the mobile version of EA’s battle royale hit have surfaced. Now keep in mind that the company has been quiet regarding the requirements — the kind of mobile hardware you’d need to play Apex Legends Mobile, as well as its developer.
Multiple sources speaking to IGN India have stated that Apex Legends Mobile’s development is helmed by Tencent with EA’s Respawn, the studio responsible for the console and PC version, in a supervisory role. This seems similar to how Activision brought Call of Duty Mobile to market — with the publisher supervising as Tencent leads development. Despite Tencent in charge of development of Apex Legends Mobile, it’s unlikely that the game would be banned here given that Call of Duty Mobile is playable with a similar arrangement.
Furthermore, as Apex Legends Mobile is prepped for a 2021 release with a goal of launching in the third quarter of the year. Spec requirements include an A11 Bionic and above for iOS which would suggest than an iPhone 8 and above would be enough to run Apex Legends Mobile. As for Android devices, at the moment it appears that those with a Snapdragon 625 or above would be enough to play the game.
Due to the volatile nature of mobile game development, it is possible that the minimum requirements to run Apex Legends Mobile may change. So take this information with a grain of salt until EA makes an official announcement.
Apex Legends is also getting a Nintendo Switch port next month. The game will launch with cross-platform functionality, season 8 content, and full-feature parity with other versions of Apex Legends. Switch players who buy the season pass will also get 30 battle pass levels and double XP for the first two weeks.
While the Nintendo Switch version of Apex Legends is being handled by Texas-based Panic Button, the developer of the excellent Doom 2016 and Warframe Nintendo Switch ports, it’s interesting to see that the mobile version of Apex Legends is being managed by a different studio. It suggests that while the Switch does run mobile hardware there seem to be differences that are meaningful enough for EA to consider another developer altogether to bring Apex Legends to Android and iOS.
Considering how popular Apex Legends has been in markets like India particularly on PC, how EA capitalise on this could mark a turning point for the company. Outside of the FIFA games, it doesn’t really do much in the country. The battle royale genre as a whole is incredibly popular on mobile and is currently dominated by the likes of Garena with Free Fire after PUBG Mobile was banned, most likely permanently.
As always, we reached out to EA for comment and will update this story if we hear from the company.
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