Free-to-Play 'Titanfall' Battle Royale Game 'Apex Legends' Announced and Released

On Friday, a report surfaced revealing that developer Respawn and publisher EA were poised to announce and release a free-to-play Titanfall battle royale game on Monday. And while at first some thought the claims seemed a bit dubious, over the course of the weekend more reports leaked out reinforcing the original claim all the way up until Sunday night, when Respawn itself confirmed everything.

Fast-forward to today, and Respawn Entertainment and EA -- right on schedule -- revealed Apex Legends, a free-to-play hero battle royale game set in the Titanfall universe for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. And as promised, not only did the pair announce the game, but released it.

As previously reported, Apex Legends features classes and heroes with unique abilities similar to hero games like Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege, which the title is pitched as being in vain of.

As for the battle royale aspect, matches will feature 60 players per game, with a maximum of three players per team. The idea here is that each player will use different classes to compliment each other.

That said, while the game is set in the Titanfall universe and features the gunplay synonymous with the series, it doesn't feature its signature thing: Titans. That's right -- the biggest thing that separates Titanfall from other online shooters, Titans, aren't in the game, which perhaps explains why Titanfall isn't in the name.

While Titans aren't being carried over from the first two games, the engine is. Apex Legends runs on a modified version of Valve's source engine, just like Titanfall and Titanfall 2 do.

Overall, the game looks pretty neat, though it's a little odd EA decided to release it now, with Anthem only a couple weeks away. Sure, Anthem doesn't have competitive multiplayer, but EA is running the risk of getting people hooked on a new game right before the release of their big new shooter. Seems risky, but when you consider EA dumped out Titanfall 2 right before it released Battlefield 1, it isn't very surprising.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. How does the game look? Do you think this means we won't be getting Titanfall 3 anytime soon?