Learning some of the advantages that Fortnite has will help Apex Legends recreate its success in the first month of launching world gamers.
Apex Legends has conquered more than 50 million gamers worldwide in just the first month after launch as a quality game. With innovative features such as the ping system or “accessibility” options – which simplify the playing process, such as turning voice chat into text, and vice versa, Apex Legends has made gamers, not like Battle Royale. I also want to test the game.
However, since its launch, Apex Legends seems to have leveled off on its way to conquering the world. There are two clearest examples of that: Respawn stopped publishing the number of players since the milestone of 50 million, and the second was the number of simultaneous viewers on Twitch: from 200,000 in the first weeks to about 25,000. At the time of writing this article. Meanwhile, whether you love or hate Fortnite, it still has more than 100,000 viewers simultaneously, forcing you to admit that Apex Legends’ biggest rival is the game from Epic.
Why did a game seem “unstoppable” when it was buffed with Respawn’s reputation, Titanfall ‘s the gameplay, and EA’s bottomless pockets stopped? Is there anything that the Apex Legends development team can learn from its rivals to regain its former form?
The answers to the first question are quite diverse, some from the game itself and the development team, while others are due to external factors and new games that compete against Apex Legends. A firestorm of Battlefield V or Sekiro has just been released. The answer to the second question is yes – there are many things Apex Legends can learn from Fortnite. Let me elaborate on what I think about the game for you.
Respawn Entertainment – From the noisy with Activision to the Titanfall universe and Apex Legends. It can be said that it was the loud lawsuit with Activision that gave birth to Respawn Entertainment. And remember that gamers have just got Titanfall – a game universe is growing strongly.
First, let’s talk about bugs. The game’s patches introduced a series of severe bugs into the game, such as endless bullets, characters that were knocked out flying off the spacecraft, Pathfinder’s climbing wall bug, the Peacekeeper’s fast-firing bug, the name still fired. The main gun is crawling on the ground. The bug flies freely. Respawn quickly overcomes them, but it can be said that the game has too many bugs even after launching in a short time.
Although small bugs are an integral part of any game update, Apex Legends has recently had many giant bugs. Most recently, the 1.1 patches of the game reset all gamers’ accounts, causing all they unlocked (characters, skins, stats, money …) to disappear. Respawn had to temporarily shut down the server and roll back all that the player lost with this patch. These big and small bugs make gamers somewhat distrustful of Respawn’s ability to operate a multiplayer game, and it’s not uncommon for someone to be frustrated to “rage quit” because of them.
Secondly, I want to talk about updating the content of Apex Legends. Apex Legends only added a new character and a new gun during the more than two months that the game exists. Meanwhile, only in patch 8.10, rival Fortnite added a new vehicle, Baller, redo the blood movement, adjust the Vending Machine’s gun selling mechanism, and fix various bugs. Epic updates its game weekly, releasing new weapons, vehicles, or items and continually changing the game’s map every season. New game modes or events are also launched at breakneck speeds to help gamers always have something new to explore in the game.
Admittedly, with a hero shooter game like Apex Legends, designing a new character is not easy, but “updating the content” is not always a new character. Besides, the Respawn team once said that they don’t want to change the game too often: “we make thoroughly tested, highly influential, and less frequent changes to minimize time. you spend to master the game. ” But based on Apex Legends’ bug history, it seems that the only real thing in Respawn’s statement is that they patched infrequently and that the “thorough test” thing needed to be reviewed.
The difference in viewership index of Apex Legends and Fortnite shows that gamers like the rapid change of Fortnite and are not satisfied with the slow of Apex Legends. If there’s something Apex Legends needs to learn from Fortnite, maybe it’s the speed of releasing new updates. Because according to the “slow but (probably not)” strategy, when Apex Legends is no longer new and strange after the time of release, gamers’ interest in the game declines significantly, while Fortnite is still successfully releasing new content.
The third problem that affects gamers’ interest in Apex Legends is that Season 1 Battle Pass is boring, not as attractive as expected. This Battle Pass was released in March, but it was filled with lines, stat trackers, and poses – things that no one wants to see because what they need is flashy, cool, colorful, and slick skins shimmer. Apex Legends’ Battle Pass also has no challenges that encourage gamers to try new ways of playing. These challenges will be a good thing for Apex Legends because it gives gamers a new way to enjoy the game in matches where only three people can win.
Even the so-called “genuine” skins you get in Tier 26 and 86 of this Battle Pass are just the same color-changing versions. Perhaps the only Legendary skin for the Havoc that you get when completing the Battle Pass is a temporary acceptable price for the price you pay. So even though the level of plowing of this Battle Pass is a bit lower than Fortnite, gamers who bought it still feel like they are wasting money on bullshit and useless things in the game. In short, this Battle Pass is a misleading and indiscriminate move of Respawn after a new game launch could not be better.
It should be added that Epic and Fortnite have never been afraid to learn from others. When PUBG was born and achieved great success, Fortnite transformed from a zombie survival game into a Battle Royale game and kicked the original game mode to take the name of Fortnite in the hearts of gamers. When Apex Legends launched with its ping system and resurrection ability, Epic quickly borrowed both of these features to improve its quality. Since its launch, Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode has always been quick to learn and use the opponents’ advantages, one of the factors that makes it still the leader until now.
In short, for the author, Apex Legends is still an exciting game with unique gameplay, and this does not need to change. What Respawn needs to change to recreate the game’s success in the first month while ensuring its survival in the future is updating the content. Games need to be updated faster, more, and with more meaningful content, instead of stubbornly following the cliché “slow but sure” promise that Respawn made initially.
Gamers are attracted to new things, attractive rewards that they can use to show off to friends, and EA is attracted to the sky numbers in terms of players, about Battle Pass revenue game brings. Apex Legends will still be healthy in the current state, but the “game as a service” model that Apex Legends and EA are pursuing requires huge amounts of money to operate the server, recruit personnel, and update internal content. Respawn and attract and retain gamers, the game will last longer, and the longer we will enjoy it.