Ubisoft are set to announce an ambitious new battle royale game heavily inspired by Apex Legends, according to reports from Insider Gaming.
The game has allegedly been in development for at least a couple of years under the codename ‘Scout’ and is said to feature gameplay very reminiscent of the aforementioned EA and Respawn Entertainment battle royale.
Scout will utilise the same formula of having a roster of characters or heroes with unique abilities and playstyles. According to the report, these characters in Scout will feel “very similar” to already existing characters in Apex with Pathfinder, Wraith, and Lifeline all namedropped. The influence of Apex on the game is so heavy that a screenshot of the game was reportedly once used internally as the thumbnail for the Scout project.
Can a new battle royale rival Fortnite and Apex Legends?
Allegedly, the goal for Scout is to take advantage of Apex’s dropping player count and Ubisoft higher-ups supposedly believe that there is room in the market for another hero battle royale. Despite declining numbers, EA are still keen to continue pushing Apex Legends with EA CEO Andrew Wilson previously stating that the game will keep growing for years to come and will one day receive a significant gameplay update, which he dubbed “Apex 2.0.”
An oversaturated battle royale market has been an issue for Ubisoft in the past. The publisher’s first attempt at the genre was the game Hyperscape which was released in 2020 but then shut down just 18 months later.
While it’s true that genre isn’t dominating the gaming industry like it once was, there will still be a lot of heavy competition facing Scout with the aforementioned Apex as well as Fortnite, PUBG, and Call of Duty Warzone all sporting healthy and dedicated playerbases. Yet, competitive games can get repetitive, and all of those players might be tempted by something new.
You just have to look at the success of Marvel Rivals replicating Overwatch to know that cloning popular games can be a winning strategy. Though Ubisoft likely won’t have the advantage of utilising one of the world’s biggest and most popular pop culture IPs.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
