Apex Legends' looks like it's going through a renaissance of sorts right now if the game's growing popularity is anything to go off of. Apex Legends recently hit a new record for concurrent players on Steam, peaking at an impressive 129,928 players on Steam alone at one time.
It seems like the EA has even further plans to expand Apex Legends reach and player base, according to reports from IGN India. It seems that multiple sources have confirmed that Tencent, the massive Chinese technology conglomerate, is helming the development of Apex Legends' planned mobile release, with Respawn maintaining a supervisory role.
According to IGN India's reporting, the mobile version of Apex Legends is slated for 2021, specifically the third quarter. Previously it was believed that Apex Legends' mobile version was coming in 2020, but it seems that development took a bit longer than expected and the release date had to be pushed back a bit. Additionally, IGN India's reporting gives fans an idea of what mobile devices and specs will be able to run the game. On iOS, players will have to have an A11 Bionic chip or higher, while android devices will need the Snapdragon 625 chip or higher.
If these reports are true, it looks like Apex Legends on mobile devices will require quite a bit of power to run smoothly. Still, it's not too surprising considering Apex Legends is a pretty big game with lots of in-game assets, textures, and geography to render at a fast pace. Still, these loose requirements always have the chance to change slightly before any official announcements are made. If EA and Tencent are aiming for a third quarter 2021 announcement, it's possible that fans could see an announcement sometime during summer 2021.
EA seems to be pretty busy handling Apex Legends recently, considering the mobile version is not the only port in development. Apex Legends' Switch version is releasing soon, as Respawn revealed the battle royale will come to Switch on March 9. While Tencent appears to be handling the mobile version of Apex Legends, the Switch version was developed by Texas-based developer Panic Button. Panic Button is very well known for its work on various ports, such as Switch ports for games like Rocket League, Warframe, and Doom Eternal.
Additionally, Apex Legends' Season 8 content just kicked off, so EA and Respawn no doubt have their hands full with the new content updates coming to the game in the next few months. All of this news is a pretty clear sign that Apex Legends continues to steadily grow in the battle royale space. Though it has stiff competition from games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends continues to carve out its own niche with a very dedicated player base. Hopefully, this mobile version of Apex Legends serves to expand the game's growing player base even more.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The Switch version will launch on March 9 and a mobile port is in development.
Source: IGN India