Apex Legends Mobile kicks off with an exclusive new hero

polygon.com:

Apex LegendsMobile is a completely separate game, its designers say. That does not mean it’s a completely different game.

Respawn Entertainment hopes players will find enough familiarity in the action on smaller Android and iOS screens, but Apex Legends Mobile will not share the progression, seasons, inventory, or anything else with the flagship console version.

The studio already announced, back in April, that there would be no cross-play among Apex Legends’ mobile and console/PC populations. But in a preview showcase two weeks ago, Mike Hoff, senior product director for Apex Legends Mobile, emphasized this version has been built specifically for smaller-screen devices, which if nothing else gives experienced players a chance to start all over in the Apex Games.

“This means we’ll have a different patch cadence, different themes and events, changes to ranked [play] and a myriad of new features,” Hoff said.

Importantly, controller support on mobile devices is “something that’s super important for us,” Hoff said, but it’s still not complete as of Apex Legends Mobile’s launch on May 17. “While we are actively exploring it, it is one [feature] that we haven’t quite got right just yet,” Hoff said. “We are continuing to develop against it, and players can expect to see it in the very near future. We were really hoping to get it in there right away, but [we] aren’t quite happy with the level of polish and testing that we’ve knocked out on it.”

The biggest feature exclusive to Apex Legends Mobile is what fans had sussed out ever since the game’s limited regional launch kicked off in early March: There’s a new legend, Fade, and you’ll play them only in Apex Legends Mobile.

Fade was purpose-built for mobile gameplay, said Jordan