EA's CEO assures Apex Legends players that the game won't pull an Overwatch 2 as live service sequels 'have almost never been as successful as the original'

Andrew Wilson, EA's CEO during an earnings call, addressed the question of whether Apex Legends fans could expect a sequel or 2.0 version of the title. The answer is pretty clear, however: It's likely to be a no.

Wilson (via IGN) says that "typically, we have seen the'version 2' thing almost never be as successful as the version 1' thing" in the context of games with live service. "The objective is to continue to support our global playerbase and deliver them innovative, creative content season-by-season, as well as to build these other things. But build them in such a way that the players don't have to give up their progress or the investment they've already made into the existing ecosystem." Wilson says (via IGN).

"Anytime we force a global community of players to choose between their investments they've already made and future innovation and creativeness, that's not a good thing for our community."

Arguments have been made for years that EA wants to build on Apex Legends and stick with it in its current form. Back in 2019, producer Drew McCoy stated that the studio was committed for the long-term to Apex Legends and would not make an Apex 2 game.

In the last few decades, we've seen several examples of redundant sequels. Overwatch 2 is the most obvious example. Overwatch 2 has been deemed a failure by many players because Blizzard failed to deliver on the main promise of PvE. Overwatch 2 has not changed much from the original game, except for new heroes, battle pass, 5v5, a change to a seasonal calendar and a few other things.

Counter Strike 2 is the next step. Counter Strike: Global Offensive was upgraded to Counter Strike 2. While there were some improvements in visual effects, such as interactive smoke and higher resolution weapon models, little else changed. At launch, many angry pro players didn't understand the point of CS2 and said that the sequel was not even close to being as good as CS:GO. Even when sequels work, such as Payday 2, it's impossible to predict when they will completely explode, such as Payday 3.

Wilson says that "our objective will be to continue innovating in the core experience... and then to build additional opportunities for engagement beyond what the core mechanic offers," he said. "We think we can do these two things together and don't think we need to separate the experience to do so," Wilson says.

Apex Legends may have its flaws, but it's nice to see someone break the trend of needless sequels. Even if EA's latest targets for its new battle pass construction were missed, the next big thing players will see is probably more monetisation.