Popular battle royale game Apex Legends is still on its way to mobile, EA confirmed this week.

The company has been quiet about the title’s development since it was first confirmed last May, leaving fans to wondering whether the port had been shelved. But its latest update brings good news.

Apex Legends made its initial debut on console and PC last February, capitalizing on the spectacular rise of the battle royale genre. And it has been a big success for EA in its first year.

The free-to-play title attracted a whopping 25 million players during its first week of availability, and 50 million within its first month. It now boasts around eight to 10 million players a week, EA’s latest stats say.

Bringing Apex Legends to mobile would obviously boost that player-count even further. So it’s no surprise that EA is still chipping away at that plan.

Apex Legends will go mobile

During EA’s most recent earnings call, chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen had this to say about the future of Apex:

“Rolling mobile out in China, you need to have a partner, and we’re … working with a partner there, and we’re very excited about the opportunity. That partner is also helping us develop a mobile Apex for the globe.”

It’s not clear who that partner might be, but we wouldn’t be surprised if EA was working with Tencent. The Chinese giant has ported other big titles, including PUBG and Call of Duty, to mobile already.

Tencent isn’t the only Chinese studio capable of making Apex portable, however.

But when will Apex go mobile?

Sadly, EA still won’t tell us when Apex might be available on mobile. Jorgensen said there’s “more to come … in terms of timing.” But that’s all the information we have on it for now.

EA will likely be trying to get the port out as quickly as possible while battle royale games are still insanely popular. It already faces tough competition on mobile, and any delays will only make it more difficult to fight back.

Aforementioned PUBG Mobile is still attracting millions of players on Android and iOS, as is the mammoth that is Fortnite — which first proved that mobile devices are now more than capable of delivering a true console-quality experience.

EA has another earnings call scheduled for May. We hope to hear more about its plans for Apex on mobile then — if not sooner. Previous EA comments suggested we could be waiting until late 2020 for the game’s release.

Via: PC Gamer