Despite its collective best efforts, Apex Legends‘ player base has yet to receive an official response from Respawn Entertainment in regards to its future plans for maps. The developer has, in the past, hinted that it plans to introduce wholly new battlegrounds to accompany the current one available, but that’s far from confirmation on the matter. As is to be expected, the lack of concrete information on the topic has resulted in rampant speculation over which existing model Respawn intends to utilize for its own battle royale or, indeed, if it intends to take a wholly unique approach.
As it stands, the two most popular methods have been popularised by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Despite resisting for a substantial period following the game’s launch, developer of the former title, Bluehole, eventually opted to introduce several new maps to sit alongside PUBG’s original Erangel map.
Epic Games, on the other hand, has stuck to its guns and kept Battle Island in place as Fortnite‘s one and only available warzone, periodically making terrain changes to offset the feeling of familiarity. As a relative newcomer to the genre, Respawn is in the envious position of being able to choose either or and if recent leaks are any indication, it may have already made its decision.
As per dedicated data-miner @RealApexLeaks, new files discovered as part of Apex Legends‘ Season 1 update reference not just the inclusion of an unused map selector feature, but a dedicated ‘map_select_button.’ As always, take everything you’ve read up to this point with a generous pinch of salt, but this is certainly the biggest indication yet of Respawn’s future plans for Apex Legends.
Besides, given its in-universe relation to the Titanfall series, Respawn would be crazy not to use more of its assets as a means of pumping out new maps on the regular. But what say you, reader? Is it your belief that Apex Legends should stick to having just one map that continues to change over the seasons, or would it benefit more from several distinct environments? Let us know your thoughts in the usual place below.