Apex Legends “Negatively Impacted” by Solos, According to Respawn
Since the launch of Apex Legends, the game has focused heavily on team-based gameplay with squads of three. However, many of the game’s players were keen on the idea of Respawn adding a Solos mode, which the studio eventually did briefly back in August of 2019. However, it has now emerged that Respawn found that the introduction of Solos proved to be negative for the game overall, meaning that it is unlikely to return.
Respawn’s Problems with Apex Legends Solos
A new statement about the prospect of Apex Legends Solos returning was recently released by Respawn as part of their latest patch notes. In it, the studio explains why the mode caused problems back in August. “When we introduced solos as a limited-time mode last year,” they write; “we saw it actually negatively impacted the game, especially when it came to new player retention. We’ve also purposely designed legends and their abilities to compliment teamplay and squad composition, but when played solo some legend abilities become useless.”
It’s easy to see why the latter issue is a serious problem for Apex Legends. Although Duos has now become a permanent addition to the game, Duos still provides players with one teammate; enough that certain team-centric skills are still useful. Played with no teammates at all, the meta would likely shift to focus solely on a handful of legends, with many who focus on teamwork seeing zero use at all. However, many players may well have been unaware of Respawn’s first finding; that player retention for new players fell when Solos was introduced. For a free-to-play game, player retention is vital.
Evidently, Respawn has no plans to reintroduce Solos as a playable mode anytime soon. It seems unlikely that the mode would return even for a limited-time event. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t ever be a way to play the game solo. According to the studio, they are still; “exploring ways to allow a solo experience,” although it’s unknown what these other ways might actually constitute.