When it comes to free-to-play battle royale shooters,Apex Legendsis among the most prolific. Since its release in 2019, the game has amassed a huge community, boasting 13 million active weekly players when the game’s 9th season went into full swing earlier this year. With such a huge player base, it makes sense that the game would be raking in plenty of cash for Respawn Entertainment and EA despite its free-to-play. Cool, limited-time skins are mainly what players spend money on in-game, so it’s curious whyApex Legendshasn’t done any media crossovers in the form of new character skins.
As it currently stands,Fortniteis filled to the brim with multimedia crossovers. Tie-ins for the game include comic books, movies, other video game properties, and even real celebrities likethe recently added Ariana Grande skin. Crossovers have keptFortnitealive for years, and it feels likeApex Legendsis long overdue some crossovers of its own. It probably wouldn’t make much sense to go full Ariana Grande right off the bat based on the game’s more serious tone, but bringing some other media properties to the mix with limited event skins might doApexsome good.
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Keeping the Apex Lore in Tact
Before even getting into the seemingly limitless possibilities ofApexcrossovers, it’s important to make one thing clear:Apex Legendshas a lot of lore that’s been told through animated shorts, comic books,tie-ins withTitanfall 2, and through limited-time events that usually correspond with new seasonal updates. It seems like Respawn Entertainment has done a lot to maintain that lore and tell the story surrounding the game in an interesting way, so it doesn’t make sense for the game to include crossovers in the exact same way thatFortnitedoes.
Certain events inFortnitebring crossover characters into the game’scanon, like with the addition of Lara Croft and the Avengers in past seasons. While that works forFortniteand the tone that the game is going for, addingadditional characters to theApex Legendscanonwould have some serious repercussions and likely distract from a lot of the interesting world-building that’s already been done.Apex Legendscrossovers would have to come in the form of non-canonical purchasable Legend and gun skins as well as weapon charms. A perfect example of this is theMass Effectweapon charms that all players received earlier this year in celebration ofMass Effect: Legendary Edition: they weren’t distracting, served as nice rewards for fans of theMass Effectseries, and the crossover was appropriate based on the similar tones of both games.
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The Possibilities of New Featured Apex Skins
While weapon charms certainly are cool, the real desired crossover items are limited-time Legend skins.Fans ofApex Legendslove when new skins are available for their favorite Legends, so doing crossovers with iconic media properties that put new skins in the digital storefront would likely go over pretty well. As mentioned above, the important thing to consider is what IPs would mesh well withApexin terms of tone and visual style. Not everything needs to follow the sci-fi aesthetic thatApexhas necessarily, but each additional crossover skin should feel natural in the world ofApex Legends.
In terms of video game crossovers withApex, there are some easy picks for what would fit well.Halocould bring some cool skins for Legends like Bangalore, Revenant, and Octane, as they could don Spartan, UNSC, or Covenant-inspired armor in place of their usual outfits. The recently announcedDead Spacereboot could give Caustic, Bloodhound, and Rampart the classic R.I.G. suits with modifications to each characters' specifications. Although it already received a small crossover in the form of the previously mentioned weapon charms,Mass Effectfeels like the perfect pair withApex. Putting Horizon and Mirage in variants of the N7 armor just seems right, and giving Pathfinder a skin inspired by Legion would be equally fitting.
Games aren’t the only properties, however, that would mesh well with everything thatApex Legendshas going for it.Star Warsfeels like an obvious choice but could produce a really coolAhsoka Tano skinfor Loba as well as storm/clone trooper-inspired skins for the rest of the Legends. AJurassic Parkcrossover skin could see the newest Legend, Seer, trade his hat for one similar to Alan Grant’s, while Wattson could wear something similar to Ellie Sattler since the two have similar hair. TheMad Maxseries feels appropriate as well, with Fuse’s Aussie quips often breaking the silence while looting. He could strap some leather and metal to himself to survive the wasteland along with Valkyrie and Lifeline. The newMatrixfilm that’s scheduled to hit theaters next year seems like it could produce great trench coat outfits for Crypto, Gibraltar, and Wraith.
Bringing New Players to Apex Legends
Apex Legendshas a huge, international player base that doesn’t necessarily need additional incentives to stick around. The game is constantly undergoing changes in addition to major seasonal updates that happen every few months, so those already devoted to the game don’t need much convincing to stay with it. New players, however, may need something to bring them over the edge so that they dive into the game. At this point,there are a lot of Legends to keep track of, making the thought of getting into the game now a little bit daunting.
If Respawn can work out some crossovers with big media franchises,Apex Legendsmight become far more enticing to those who aren’t already invested.Fortniteseems to draw new people into the game with each subsequent crossover, and it might doApexwell to learn from Epic Games' success. As detailed above,Apex’s crossovers should not be anything drastic. However, including nods and references to other large franchises with different Legends might bring a whole new audience to the game.
Apex Legendsis available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
