5 Cross-overs that need to happen in Apex Legends

I have been a huge fan of Apex Legends since day one. I was a launch day player, and I absolutely love how much the game has grown and expanded since launch. It now has twice as many Legends, three maps, a new permanent non-battleroyale mode. The game keeps evolving and growing and it keeps getting better. I am such a fan of the game as it is my go to game when I don't have a new game to play, and it was the first thing I downloaded when I got my new gaming pc. In fact, I played so much Apex, I was worried about my Apex content and attention overshadowing Game Infinite with "too much" Apex stuff, that it was what inspired me to the entire concept of our content Gi channels such as Apex Infinite.

On the other hand, my gamer journey with Fortnite has been different. I didn't play it at all during it's first year as it became the world-wide phenomenon that it is. I didn't get into to Fortnite until shortly before the big Chapter 2 reset dropped. While I enjoy the game a lot and play it reasonably frequently, I will say that Apex is by far my go to. To say that Apex Legends competes with Fortnite, I think is fair. They are both massively popular battle royales in the free to play space. EA redirected Respawn to create Apex Legends instead of what would have been Titanfall 3, largely because of the rising popularity of Fortnite, Call of Duty Blackout, and PUBG.

I was inspired to write this article because despite being a mega fan of Apex Legends, there is one thing that is struggles with, and I think I know of an easy solution. Recently, a Reddit AMA showcased how the Apex community is unhappy with the price of cosmetics in Apex Legends. Now, I know that for some die-hard fans, ANY comparison to Fortnite is blasphemy; however, I think the solution to Apex's cosmetic store lies in looking at the competition.

I agree with many of the users on Reddit who complained that the cosmetics are "too expensive" but not for the same reason as many of them do. The value of any digital good is completely relative to the market. I am not saying that Respawn and EA don't need to keep the game profitable. This is a free to play game and there needs to be a cosmetic store and battle pass system in order to keep the game profitable. Right now in Apex, a premium legendary skin costs 20$ (kind of) in real money. While many would say that 20$ for a single skin is high, and I would agree, I think they would miss the point.

(Credit: Eurogamer)

I think the bigger picture is just that Apex Legends just doesn't ever really have good cosmetics. Respawn gave us a fun game, with fun weapons and powers; but they just really struggle to make the skins interesting. I personally think that all the Legend skins fall into two categories. 1. A boring color change. 2. A Legendary skin that is often also very boring and ugly.

I really just rarely like the Legendary skins of the characters, and when I do I just don't think they are worth 20$ of real money. While most of Reddit argued that they need to come out with "cheaper cosmetics", honestly, I think they just need to make the 20$ cosmetics more interesting.

Why do I think that is an acceptable compromise? Because it works so well for Fortnite. Fortnite is on the opposite end of the spectrum to this conversation because they don't just make cosmetics more interesting, they make them MUST HAVES. They often make their legendary cosmetics an Event in of itself that you talk with your friends about or bring in communities of other parts nerd culture. They have a simple solution. They do CROSS OVERS. Few things excited gamers more than quality cross overs and honestly, Fortnite has done the cross over game better than any other game in history. They do it big. They do it often, and they get people excited about skins. Fortnite has had Star Wars, DC, Marvel, Tomb Raider, John Wick, Alien, Terminator, just to name a few!

If Epic can arrange all these cross overs (profitably) with other companies, I think EA could as well. However, even if EA is too stingy with their arrangements they already have so many existing IP's and licensing deals that they wouldn't even have to go very far. I just find it so odd that something that is clearly working so well for their competition is something they are largely ignoring. They don't even capitalize on the fact that they have a popular free to play title and don't do much when other EA games launch. Recently, EA Bioware released the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and all they did for the cross-promotion was a few gun charms. Seriously, that's it.

I think the that EA needs to start actually utilizing their own library and have Respawn start giving us popular themed content for their games, and I think they would be blown away at how popular it just might be. Here are 5 obvious and easy cross-overs that Apex Legends needs.

5. Battlefield (Bonus: Madden & FIFA)

I put Madden and FIFA as a small bonus, in the title, because these are huge brands that (while I couldn't care less about); considering how much money Madden and Fifa make EA, it astounds me that there is no sports stuff in Apex Legends. The idea that no one there thought to put some of the Legends in some sports jerseys? Seriously? I don't like sports and even I thought of that. They do it in Fortnite. Again, I don't care about sports, but the idea that the most money hungry company in gaming didn't think to connect the two kind of astonishes me. But EA has another mega title, Battlefield that also would be ripe for cross over content. With their current strategy, it would not surprise me if Battlefield 6 came and went without any content in Apex at all. When Battlefield 6 releases, If they don't have good links between Battlefield 6 and Apex Legends it would be a huge mistake.

4. Dead Space

Another game that I would think would make for an exciting cross over with Apex would be the Dead Space franchise. Bringing the Dead Space armor and weapon skin into the game's store I think would be very exciting. They could easily just bring the style to all the legends even as a set, with the iconic mask. This would be higher on the list if they time it right to coincide with a Dead Space trilogy remaster or a Dead Space 4 announcement. I want there to be a future for Dead Space and getting excitement by making it a skin in Apex would be amazing. I think that they could just adapt the style to fit all the Legends and sell a bundle, but I think it would fit Caustic best.

3. Plants vs Zombies

EA is the often hated publisher that ironically holds the publishing to some absolutely beloved and fan favorite franchises. Also, EA is one that holds rights to the games I have put my all time most amount of hours into. Apex Legends, Titanfall, Star Wars, and the number 1 pick on this list are games that I have put more hours into than any other, and this pick is one of them as well. Plants vs Zombies 2 is easily my all time favorite mobile game, and one I have put thousands of hours into. I have been playing PVZ for well over a decade. This ongoing series offers so much fun and goofy content to pick from, and as much as I would love to see some zombified skins for the Legends, what I want most are some PVZ gun charms. I think that largely the gun charms in Apex are really boring, but having a peashooter or one of my favorite plants would be exciting enough for me to drop cash. They could even do a big PVZ bundle filled with a dozen or so plant gun charms. Another interesting way to bring PVZ into Apex would be to dress the legends in some casual wear where they wear a T-shirt with various PVZ graphics and plants on it. I think this is an obvious choice not just for the popularity of the PVZ community but also that there is precedent for this cross over. Mass Effect Andromeda had a small PVZ Easter egg, and I think it would be awesome to see some PVZ content in Apex Legends.

2. Star Wars

Can I ask a question? How on earth has EA had the license to make Star Wars content for a decade and managed to do so little with it? They have cancelled more Star Wars games than they released, and good god that could be an entire very rant fill article in of itself. However, a more contextually relevant question, is how did EA let the popularity of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order come and and ONLY DO ONE cross over. This one is a little bit of a cheat on this list because "technically" they did already do it. They had a skin for Pathfinder that was a "color" match to the droid in JFO. However, one (arguably low effort re-color) skin compared to the vast popularity of Star Wars seems crazy to me. Fortnite has had entire skins for Rey, Kylo Ren, Stormtroopers, Sith troopers, and entire LTE's with lightsabers and more! How did EA only greenlight one slightly re-colored Pathfinder? Jedi Fallen Order has so many amazing characters, where is my Poncho wearing Mirage? Where is my Inquistor Wraith? More importantly, where is my DARTH VADER CAUSTIC??? Why did Fortnite get a Lightsabers event and not EA Respawn? The possibility for Star Wars cross over skins, weapons, and LTE's is absolutely astounding that no one at Respawn is asking for Star Wars content. There were so many people that reinstalled and played Fortnite for the first time or the first time in a long time because of the Star Wars events. EA underestimates the power of the Force, and I find their lack of faith disturbing.

MASS EFFECT: N7 ARMOR AND WEAPONS

There is one cross over that is so painfully obvious that I can not fathom why it hasn't happened yet. Worse yet is that not only is it the most obvious, but it has the greatest precedent. EA Bioware's Anthem was a lot of awful things, but one thing that was amazing was that it had N7 Armor. EA has historically done an amazing job of cross over armors from Anthem's N7 Armor, to Dragon Age armor in Mass Effect, to Mass Effect armor in Kingdoms of Amalur. There is so much precedent for cross over armor, and the N7 armor is one of the most iconic armor looks that EA has, it just NEEDS to be in Apex Legends. I want an N7 Armor for every single Legend in the game, and I want Avenger Assault Rifle skin for the R-301. I want this from Respawn more than I even want Titanfall 3. N7 needs to land in Apex and it needs to happen yesterday. The fact that the Mass Effect Legendary Edition came out and the only cross over they thought of is some gun charms is such a missed opportunity! Can you imagine how cool each Legend would look like in their own variant of N7 Armor? Wraith would make for an excellent N7 Phantom. The Omni Blade could even be cross-legend Heirloom or an LTE melee weapon. The fact is that EA already has some amazing armor and weapon skins that fans would love and they just need to decide to use it.

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