Apex Legends Mobile is shutting down in May, EA won’t offer refunds for in-game purchases

Apex Legends Mobile is closing its doors, less than a year after its release. In a tweet, developer Respawn Entertainment confirmed its decision to suspend the futuristic Battle Royale game on Android and iOS, in all regions on May 2 – just weeks before its first birthday. The game will be rendered unplayable at 4:30 AM IST that day, with the developer disabling all in-app purchases and removing the title from the store today. All existing purchases will be available for use within the 90-day window before Apex Legends Mobile closes. Additionally, publisher EA has also ceased development of its mobile title Battlefield, shutting down its Industrial Toys studio completely.

“After a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has started to fall below that bar in quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made a mutual decision to end our mobile game,” reads Respawn Entertainment’s blog post. The studio also notes that it is “excited” about the mobile platform as a whole and that it ” real money purchases”.

Apex Legends Mobile Review: The resemblance is uncanny

EA refers to the terms in its user agreement as an excuse for not issuing refunds. On the other hand, we have Epic Games and Iron Galaxy’s Rumbleverse, which also recently announced a shutdown plan slated for February 28. Players who have spent money on this game are eligible for a refund on all platforms, be it the Battle Pass or Brawlla Bills (in-game currency) – although details on this will be revealed in time. During an earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson offered an update that hints at a possible future for Apex Legends on mobile. “We’ve learned a lot and plan to reinvent a connected Apex Mobile experience in the future,” he said (via IGN).

During the call, Wilson also went into detail about why Apex Legends Mobile was being shut down. “There’s a level of immersion and complexity to the gameplay of Apex in particular, which is very much what Apex is – the verticality of the gameplay and the team play – that hasn’t been as translated well on mobile devices than we had hoped. I think we learned a lot from that,” he added. The decision is platform specific only, services for Apex Legends on PC and console continues to work properly.

As previously reported, EA has also halted development of the mobile game Battlefield, announced in April 2021. “As the industry has evolved and our strategy to create a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem has taken shape, we have decided to move from the current direction to best achieve our vision for the franchise and meet the expectations of our players,” reads a statement from the publisher. Battlefield as a franchise has recently undergone some big changes, with the new studio Ridgeline Games leading the upcoming games campaign segment. The studio is led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. Additionally, Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella – known for the aforementioned Titanfall and Apex Legends – was loaded with Battlefield, with the central goal of creating a connected universe.

Wilson claimed that EA halted work on the mobile version to “really think about the broader franchise strategy and allow management to create a truly immersive cross-platform gaming experience around a reimagined battlefield at the heart of the game.” coming”. For now, the studio will continue to work on the evolution of the tarnished Battlefield 2042, which was released to poor critical response.