The History of and Story Behind the Apex Legends Logo
Apex Legends is a battle royale that shares a lot of elements with its counterparts. For example, it is a first-person shooter, which is the kind of title that has the strongest connection with battle royales. Likewise, it runs on a free-to-play model, meaning that its revenues are reliant on its players becoming interested enough to spend real currencies for in-game resources. Having said that, Apex Legends stands out by being one of the most successful battle royales that can be found out there, which is particularly remarkable because it isn’t one of the pioneers but rather a latecomer.
How Did Apex Legends Come Into Existence?
For those who are curious, Apex Legends is made by Respawn Entertainment, which is one of the numerous video game studios owned by Electronic Arts. Generally speaking, it is known for the Titanfall series, meaning that it is no stranger to first-person shooters by any means. However, it is also worth mentioning that Respawn Entertainment was the video game studio that made Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and is in the process of making Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.
In any case, Apex Legends isn’t a title in the Titanfall series. However, it would be a lie to say that there is no connection between them. After all, Apex Legends is set in the same sci-fi setting as the Titanfall series, which is one in which humanity has long since spread out to the stars. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the setting isn’t a peaceful one, seeing as how the Titanfall series is best-known for pilots fighting it out in full-fledged mecha suits.
Moving on, Apex Legends came into existence when Respawn Entertainment started brainstorming on their next project after the completion of their post-release support for Titanfall 2. They knew that they wanted to continue making games in the Titanfall setting. However, that didn’t necessarily mean that they had a clear idea of what they wanted to do next. Instead, Respawn Entertainment split up into teams to create a number of small prototypes to showcase weapons as well as other elements that might be used in their next title.
One of these prototypes based on battle royales was what became the basis for Apex Legends. Naturally, there were a lot of changes that happened over the course of this transition. For example, the Titanfall series’s mecha suits were considered incompatible with a battle royale, with the result that the people at Respawn Entertainment made a choice to create character classes that could fit into the Titanfall setting without issue. Likewise, wall-running as well as other maneuverability features from the Titanfall series were removed because they would have made tracking opponents too challenging in a battle royale. Of course, new features were introduced as well, with examples ranging from the introduction of a three-man squad system to the implementation of a free-to-play model.
Amusingly, the existence of Apex Legends remained a secret until it was time for its launch. People knew that Respawn Entertainment was working on something new. However, the common assumption was that it was working on a third installment in the Titanfall series. As such, Apex Legends came as a real surprise to a lot of people, though seeing as how its player base can be measured in the tens of millions, it seems safe to say that it has proven to be a welcome surprise rather than an unwelcome surprise.
What Should People Know about the Apex Legends Logo?
Generally speaking, there are a couple of logos associated with Apex Legends. First, there is the title, which consists of “Apex” presented in the most prominent manner while “Legends” is relegated to the status of a subtitle. The letters are rendered in white upon a red background, thus making for a simple and straightforward though nonetheless memorable visual. Of particular note would be the letters that make up “Apex,” which possess a very worn appearance. Meanwhile, the second logo would be the one that is most reminiscent of a lambda. However, where the legs of the lambda tend to be shown as having flat bottoms, these culminate in sharp points that also hook inwards. Sometimes, this logo is white rendered upon a red background. Other times, it shows up in other color combinations.
Moving on, there is a story to how Apex Legends became known as Apex Legends. In short, while it wasn’t a Titanfall title, it was still set in the Titanfall setting. As a result, some people might be wondering why it wasn’t marketed as a spinoff of some kind. Primarily, there were a couple of considerations that made this a bad idea. One, Apex Legends was very clearly not a Titanfall title. Due to that, if it was marketed as a spinoff of some kind, it could have hurt the Titanfall brand by upsetting Titanfall fans. Two, its release happened not too long after Respawn Entertainment had been bought out by Electronic Arts. Thanks to that, if Apex Legends had been marketed as a spinoff of some kind, there was a very real chance that a significant number of video game consumers would have started screaming about Respawn Entertainment having been forced to make a battle royale by Electronic Arts for profit-seeking reasons. There are some people who claim that no publicity is bad publicity, but to be honest, that is an over-simplistic statement at best. Instead, Respawn Entertainment decided to minimize the chances of its new title upsetting Titanfall fans, thus resulting in the unusual manner of Apex Legends’s launch.
In any case, it is worth commenting more about the worn appearance of the Apex Legends logos, which touches upon a long-standing issue in the science fiction fandom. Some science media media opt for a very sleek, very sophisticated-looking presentation, which is very useful because that reinforces the impression of the far future as well as the technological advancements that are assumed to come hand-in-hand with the far future. In fact, there are real businesses reliant on such visuals for their brand-building, with Apple being perhaps the best-known example. However, there are also science media media that take an opposite approach, meaning that much of their sci-fi elements are given a worn and otherwise broken-in look. Often-times, this creates a feeling of increased grittiness while also serving to communicate that the fictional setting is inhabited by “real” people who still resemble us in fundamental ways. Given the Titanfall setting’s emphasis upon conflict out on the frontier, that makes the worn appearance the most natural choice between the two.
