Publisher Electronic Arts is throwing in the towel on Apex Legends Mobile, the mobile spinoff of its popular battle royale shooter set in the Titanfall universe, and on Battlefield Mobile, which was in development. Apex Legends Mobile will shut down and become unplayable on May 1, and developer Respawn Entertainment says it’s removing in-game purchases and pulling the game from digital stores today.
“We have made the painful decision to sunset Apex Legends Mobile,” Respawn said on its Twitter account. “This decision does not come with ease. Factors beyond our control have prevented us from maintaining the high-quality experience and content that our players deserve.”
In an update from Electronic Arts, the developers explained the decision in more detail, saying, “Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game. Although disappointing, we are proud of the game we launched, are grateful for the support of the Apex Legends community, and are confident that this is the right decision for players.”
Despite Apex Legends Mobile’s shutdown — after less than a year — Respawn says it “remain[s] excited about mobile as a platform and look forward to new opportunities to serve players there in the future.” Respawn previously attempted to bring the Titanfall franchise to mobile with two canceled projects: Titanfall: Frontline, a competitive collectible card game, and Titanfall: Assault, a real-time strategy game.
EA also commented on the decision to end development of its mobile version of Battlefield, saying, “As the industry has evolved and our strategy to create a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem has taken shape, we decided to pivot from the current direction to best deliver on our vision for the franchise and to meet the expectations of our players.”
Battlefield developer DICE announced its Battlefield mobile project in 2021, ahead of the troubled launch of Battlefield 2042 in October that year. At the time, DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson (who has since left EA) said that the mobile spin on Battlefield would be “completely new.” EA and DICE enlisted studio Industrial Toys, the mobile game developer founded by Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian, to co-develop Battlefield mobile.
But in December 2021, Electronic Arts revealed it was shaking up the Battlefield franchise in a major way. Vince Zampella, co-founder of Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, was tasked with overseeing the Battlefield franchise. Gabrielson’s departure from DICE and EA was announced concurrently. EA and DICE later said they were “rethinking the development process [of Battlefield] from the ground up,” and would continue to support Battlefield 2042 and pursue new projects in the franchise.
