Respawn has officially unveiled its new Apex Legends character that's set to debut in the battle royale. The announcement comes after Apex Legends chose not to add a new character with Season 16 a few months ago. While Respawn is yet to share what the new Legend will look like in-game, the latest addition will be welcome news to many fans who have been expecting a new playable character.
Although Season 16 marked the first time a new Legend wasn't introduced for the game, it shaped up to be one of the more engaging periods for Respawn. Most notably, Apex Legends hit a new all-time peak player count on Steam less than a day after Season 16 was launched. A new record was set not long after with the player base continuing the momentum throughout the past couple of months. With the game maintaining a steady pace of quality-of-life updates and other tweaks, a new Legend for the upcoming season promises to tease fans for an interesting few months ahead.
In its latest "Story from the Outlands" trailer, Respawn introduced a new Legend called August Brinkman, also known as Ballistic. Described as a veteran from the Thunderdome Games era, this next addition to Apex Legends will be an Assault class character that's set to debut with the upcoming season, Arsenal. The announcement confirms some of the leaks from back in March when Ballistic was rumored to show up in Apex Legends Season 17. While not much is offered about the character's abilities or mechanics, players could expect more details with the Season 17 launch trailer on April 26.
Of course, the new character isn't the only change developers will introduce with the new season. As per Respawn, Season 17 will include updated versions of the World's Edge map and the Firing Range, as well as a "Weapon Mastery" feature that lets Apex Legends players complete challenges and earn rewards. The studio teased that changes are also coming to Ranked play, though it remains to be seen how these will take form in the new season.
Overall, 2023 is already turning out to be an interesting year for Respawn and Apex Legends. The company underwent some notable changes including the discontinuation of the mobile version of its battle royale along with the cancelation of the unannounced Apex Legends single-player game. However, the studio's decision to focus more on tweaks and quality-of-life updates over the past few months has been met with largely positive feedback from many fans. Now, with the tease of the upcoming Legend, it will be interesting to see how the appeal of the franchise changes.
Apex Legends is currently available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
