VR game Apex Construct sales spike after players mistake it for Apex Legends

In a case of mistaken identity, VR action game Apex Construct—which came out in March last year for some of the best VR headsets—has seen Steam page views rocket 4000% in the last two weeks, and it has sold more copies in China in a week that it did in the whole of 2018. And it's all because it shares part of its name with Apex Legends, the free battle royale game that's taken the world by storm.

According to Fast Travel Games communications manager Andreas Juliusson, players who are searching for Apex Legends have stumbled across Apex Construct and paid for the game by mistake, apparently not knowing that Apex Legends is free. It probably doesn't help that the logos are pretty similar, which might have confused some people.

"Apparently people are prepared to buy what they think is Apex Legends for $29.99, even thought it's a free-to-play title...most likely these units will be refunded, but our books look pretty good at the moment ;-)," he posted on Reddit.

The downside is that some buyers have been leaving negative reviews, feeling as if they've been scammed. "Fortunately the Steam Community team is looking into this right now. Somewhere, there are massive misunderstandings going on," Juliusson said. Let's hope Valve are able to resolve the issue soon.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.