Just over a month ago EA and Respawn Entertainment released the newest Battle Royale game, and it's massive success is all thanks to Fortnite...
About a year ago some information on a "Titanfall battle royale" game was leaked. According to Gamespot.com "No one noticed" when the game map leaked back then, and many passed it off as "fake." However, the map wasn't fake, and EA opened February 2019, with something that would absolutely shake the gaming world.
Apex Legends has undoubtedly taken the gaming world by storm, and if you are reading this you've likely already hear of it, or even played it. Capitalizing on many tropes in modern gaming, Respawn managed to make the perfect mix of Hero abilities, Battle Royale chaos, and that lovely Titanfall styling. The game hailed as the "Fortnite Killer" (but we know Pewdiepie really killed it) may just be living up to that title. In just one month Apex's player count broke the 50 Million mark, a number Fortnite didn't reach until after 4 months of being on the market. Heck, after 3 days Apex legends had matched Fortnite's week 2 player count. Point is, this game is off the rails popular.
There are some interesting factors contributing to this popularity level. First off, it should be noted that Fortnite still has over 200 MILLION people registered to play, and is certainly not dead yet. But as to why Respawn's new game is catching up so quickly, I think it can be directly attributed to Fortnite, among a few other things. Consider this: do you remember PUBG being crazy popular? No? That's probably because, while Player Unknown's Battlegrounds introduced the item collection and shrinking death ring components now known everywhere, it was Fortnite that made those components so widely known. I mean, honestly, according to SteamCharts, PUBG peaked at 3 million players at once. Epic Games said Fortnite's concurrent peak was just 2 days before the release of Apex on February 2nd, during an event where DJ "Marshmello" put on a live concert in the game... somehow. That event saw, get this, 10.7 MILLION concurrent players. So it's obvious that Fortnite popularized Battle Royale as we now know it, but it didn't just use those basic mechanics from PUBG: Fortnite took Battle Royale from something hyper serious and transformed it into a fun, brightly colored party with guns. Fun skins and unique dances/animations combined with a cartoon-like art style made Fortnite the perfect game for all ages.
So with Fortnite being so popular and dominating the Youtube trending page, as well as all gaming news sources, it's no wonder everyone's eyes opened a little wider when rumors of a Titanfall Battle Royale began to surface. Apex Legends' success can be called the perfect storm of hype and a need for change. Everyone loves Battle Royale, it's the most popular genre of game out there right now, but with Fortnite being the only player in the game people have been starting to burn out on Fortnite coverage. Beyond that, people had fresh in their minds just how good Titanfall 2 was and were eagerly looking forward to Respawn Entertainment announcing Titanfall 3. So when Respawn suddenly dropped Apex Legends for free, gamers were beyond ready to jump into it.
Normally hype born from boredom wanes very quickly. Luckily, Apex has some tricks up its sleeve. The first and most obvious change is the introduction of Heroes or Legends. Each team member chooses a different Legend when starting the game. These Legends each have different abilities, game dialogue, and animation to customize and play with. It brings an aspect of popular MOBAs to the Battle Royale genre. The next thing they did was enhance the nervous sensations and the intensity of gun-play by making the camera first person. My biggest issue with PUBG and Fortnite was that, in 3rd person, I couldn't shoot as accurately as I wanted to. The perspective change fixed that, and also added to the intensity of gunfights and the nervousness you feel running around, unable to just move the camera freely or naturally see slightly behind you. First person also helped give it a grittier feel while keeping the fun vibes of the animation. As a result Apex Legends eliminated a Fortnite problem, the childish vibe which alienated adult fans and grew an army of young children within the game. To add to that, they included executions which also have unlockable animations based on character, and the made sure to give the Legends very unique personalities. Top that off with the familiar weapons and controls of Titanfall and Apex Legends has quickly become a bona fide hit.
Apex Legends is playable for free on all major platforms and can be found for PC here: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends
So with Fortnite being so popular and dominating the Youtube trending page, as well as all gaming news sources, it's no wonder everyone's eyes opened a little wider when rumors of a Titanfall Battle Royale began to surface. Apex Legends' success can be called the perfect storm of hype and a need for change. Everyone loves Battle Royale, it's the most popular genre of game out there right now, but with Fortnite being the only player in the game people have been starting to burn out on Fortnite coverage. Beyond that, people had fresh in their minds just how good Titanfall 2 was and were eagerly looking forward to Respawn Entertainment announcing Titanfall 3. So when Respawn suddenly dropped Apex Legends for free, gamers were beyond ready to jump into it.
Normally hype born from boredom wanes very quickly. Luckily, Apex has some tricks up its sleeve. The first and most obvious change is the introduction of Heroes or Legends. Each team member chooses a different Legend when starting the game. These Legends each have different abilities, game dialogue, and animation to customize and play with. It brings an aspect of popular MOBAs to the Battle Royale genre. The next thing they did was enhance the nervous sensations and the intensity of gun-play by making the camera first person. My biggest issue with PUBG and Fortnite was that, in 3rd person, I couldn't shoot as accurately as I wanted to. The perspective change fixed that, and also added to the intensity of gunfights and the nervousness you feel running around, unable to just move the camera freely or naturally see slightly behind you. First person also helped give it a grittier feel while keeping the fun vibes of the animation. As a result Apex Legends eliminated a Fortnite problem, the childish vibe which alienated adult fans and grew an army of young children within the game. To add to that, they included executions which also have unlockable animations based on character, and the made sure to give the Legends very unique personalities. Top that off with the familiar weapons and controls of Titanfall and Apex Legends has quickly become a bona fide hit.
Apex Legends is playable for free on all major platforms and can be found for PC here: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends
Good game, I'm still playing this. I got a new gaming keyboard from FragStore, so I hope I could get better at it. I don't care for battle royals much, but somehow playing this is a really fun and smooth experience.
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