Apex Legends Season 2: EA reveals first details and release date of new update

Andrew Griffin

The second season of Apex Legends is about to arrive, EA has announced.

The first major update will arrive on 2 July and bring a whole host of new features, a fresh character and changes to the game's King's Canyon world.

Apex Legends is a battle royale game where players fight to stay alive longer than everyone else, taking on different challenges as they attempt to eliminate other players. It is similar to Fortnite and PUBG, the games with which it competes.

The new update, known as "Battle Charge" will arrive on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, EA said. Like the game itself, the update will be free.

But the second season also comes with a new Battle Pass, which will have daily and weekly challenges, fresh rewards, new skins for characters and the ability to earn crafting metal. The company did not announce pricing for the new Battle Pass, but it's likely it will cost something similar to the $9.50 of the first season's.

Perhaps the biggest update is a new character, known as Wattson. EA released a video that revealed details about the character, alongside a host of puns about her interest in electricity.

A new weapon called the L-STAR will also arrive. "This energy machine gun hits hard with hefty projectiles that pack a serious punch, but this power comes with a price – sustained fire causes the L-STAR to overheat and briefly stop working, so you’ll have to master its rhythm to make full use of it," EA said.

EA forecast in May that net bookings, or the game publisher's adjusted revenue, from Apex Legends will be in the range of $300 million to $400 million in fiscal year 2020, adding that the forecast did not assume any contribution this year from future mobile versions or games in the Chinese market.

Apex Legends signed up 10 million players within three days of its launch on Feb. 4, EA has said, a milestone that "Fortnite" took two weeks to reach.

Since the release of its battle royale mode in September 2017, Fortnite has gone on to amass nearly 250 million registered players across the globe, according to a report in Engadget, while ApexLegends had 50 million players as of March 2019.

Additional reporting by agencies