Apex Legends is the big new name in the battle royale space. Electronic Arts and Respawn have made the game into a titan of streaming popularity and fun shooter gameplay. And since it’s debut, there’s been one thing holding Respawn Entertainment’s popular free-to-play shooter back. Origin and their Electronic Arts holder don’t have the best track record among PC gamers. I’d wager it would be a good move to get the game on Steam, and that’s just what they’re planning to do.
Apex Legends’ Season 7 begins on the same day this is happening, that’s November 4 by the way, Expect new challenges and patch changes to come rushing in with the new players. The infusion of new content and new players from a Steam release will likely lead to a nice surge in activity in-game. So it’s a very good reason to swap over to that version when it drops.
It’s pretty clear why this is happening. EA has slowly been bringing games back to Steam over the last few months as they move to rebrand their Origin brand and its storefront. Origin Access has since been rebranded as EA Play, and the client will soon be known as EA Desktop. Electronic Arts will then use this as the springboard for other releases in the future.
Players can download Apex Legends from the Steam store starting November 4, and it’s still free. And if you already had the game on Origin you won’t be losing any progress. You can easily transfer your Origin cosmetics and other progress to the Steam version, presumably via linking the two accounts. Anyone who plays the game on Steam will also receive free Portal and Half-Life themed gun charms. They include GLaDOS as a potato, Octane as a headcrab victim, and a twee Wattson with companion cube.