The latest Apex Legends Season 9 trailer has confirmed that an “Arenas” game mode is coming and will be shown off in a gameplay reveal on Monday. The Season 9 launch trailer also prominently features Titanfall 2 boss Ash with her hinting that the Apex Predators will be heavily involved in the new mode.
With Season 8 in its final weeks, Apex Legends developers Respawn have been ramping up their teases and trailers for the upcoming Season 9 and Legacy. Earlier this week, the new Legend and daughter of an Apex Predator Valkyrie was revealed in a new Stories from the Outlands video.
Ash appears throughout the Legacy launch trailer monitoring the Legends as they battle in the revamped Infested Olympus map. At one point she says: “It is time to return the Legends to where is started. A little underground brutality.” The trailer ends with her saying “Welcome to the legacy of the Apex Predators. Welcome to the Arenas.” The Legacy launch trailer also shows off plenty of new features, including Valkyrie, the new Bocek Bow, and some new areas of Infested Olympus.
The Arena mode has been a long-rumored addition to the game as Apex Legends dataminers found evidence of the mode back in October before Season 7’s launch which introduced Olympus. The mode will get its gameplay reveal on April 26 and will take Apex Legends "beyond battle royale." Ash’s dialogue in the trailer implies that the Arenas were how the Apex Predators got started and that they are now sharing it with the Legends.
This trailer also lacks the usual season name and number in the title and video thumbnail, instead opting for just "Apex Legends Legacy." This could suggest that this update might be bigger in scale and come with more game-changing features than a typical seasonal update might. New Legend Valkyrie appears a lot in the trailer too and, while her exact abilities are yet to be officially revealed, she uses her Northstar Titan-inspired jetpack to fly around and delivers a volley of missiles and shows up with the Bocek Bow towards the end.
With another Titanfall game looking increasingly unlikely, it is excellent to see Respawn bringing the Titanfall and Apex Legends universes together to make the whole story more cohesive. Provided Arenas is well-received, this could open even more possibilities for Apex Legends to go even further beyond battle royale. Titanfall 2’s campaign mode is highly regarded as one of the best in the shooter genre, so it would be interesting to see what could be done with the roster of Legends.
However, details on the mode are sparse for now, and it is unclear as to how Arenas will be integrated into the base Apex Legends game unless it is a stand-alone mode. Furthermore, how will Respawn juggle the battle royale and Arenas aspects of the game, and is there a danger of the two modes competing against each other both in terms of player counts and development resources? Presumably, players will be left with fewer questions after April 26.
Apex Legends is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.