Apex Legends teases something 'beyond battle royale' in Season 9

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The Titanfall family reunion is out in full force.

Respawn has brought even more Titanfall 2 leads back into Apex Legends ahead of the game's next season—though I'm afraid there's still nary a Titan in sight.

The launch trailer for Apex Legends: Legacy (Respawn has dropped the Season number this time round) reintroduced us to Ash, a scary robot lass and one of the Apex Predator antagonists from 2016's tremendous wallrunner. She's been keeping an eye on the games—shown off in an explosive montage of gunfights, night clubs and shattered beers—before teasing the introduction of something "beyond battle royale".

We don't get much beyond the name "Arenas" in the trailer. Information scraped from dataminer shrugtal may provide a bit more insight, suggesting a 3v3 mode that'll turn parts of Apex's maps into tiny arenas that shrink further over time. The trailer's montage of team vs team fights lends credence to smaller, tighter firefights, and I am keen on the idea of a mode that cuts straight into Apex' tremendous shootouts.

We also get a very brief glimpse at Olympus' new "Overgrown" variation, turning the pristine flying city into a snow-blasted wilderness. There's also a good bit of new hero Valkyrie nipping about on her jetpack—though I don't expect we'll be jetting right out of the arena as shown here.

Respawn will give us a better picture of the new mode, new hero and reworked map in a gameplay reveal trailer next Monday, April 26th. Legacy itself is set to begin on May 4th.

Natalie Clayton
Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.