Fans of either of EA’s big-name shooters on mobile devices will be disappointed to learn that Apex Legends Mobile is being cancelled and the development of an upcoming Battlefield Mobile game.

The cancellation of Apex Legends Mobile is rather shocking as the game seemed to be in a good place, but apparently not one that Respawn and or EA were happy to continue with the development of. And to a degree, it is understandable; games that require as much work and constant fiddling with as games-as-service titles do will need to be worth the amount of work, and Apex Legends Mobile mustn’t have been.

On an EA blog post announcing the news, Respawn said the following:

“Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game. Although disappointing, we are proud of the game we launched, are grateful for the support of the Apex Legends community, and are confident that this is the right decision for players.”

Real-world money purchases are disabled now, and the game will be removed from webstores. At the same time, players can continue playing and spending any Syndicate Gold they have on their account until 9 AM AEST on Tuesday, the 2nd of May when the game will be switched off in all regions.

You will not be able to request any refunds for money spent in the game. And there is no indication if there are plans to move the mobile exclusive legends Rhapsody or Fade to the main game. 

Meanwhile, Battlefield Mobile hadn’t been released, so there is going to be less disappointment out there for this one, but it’s interesting none-the-less, have a look at the quote here from the EA blog post announcing the news:

“As the industry has evolved and our strategy to create a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem has taken shape, we decided to pivot from the current direction to best deliver on our vision for the franchise and to meet the expectations of our players. We remain highly committed to unlocking Battlefield’s enormous potential. We’re hard at work at evolving Battlefield 2042, and are in pre-production on our future Battlefield experiences at our studios across the globe.”

I’m used to seeing talk of following industry trends besides the news of mobile games, not of them being cancelled. But it’s been a rough few years for EA and Battlefield with nothing but problems and complaints. An unpopular, disliked mobile game isn’t going to help them at all.

Let me know what you think of any of this news in the comments section below.