Apex Legends gets March release date on Switch

After weeks of rumours, leaks, and teases, developer Respawn has finally announced that Apex Legends will be getting its long-awaited Switch release on Tuesday, 9th March.

Apex Legends was originally announced for Nintendo's platform last June, with a tentative release window of autumn. However, complications caused by the coronavirus pandemic saw the free-to-play shooter's Switch launch delayed into this year.

Excitement mounted last month when a 2nd February arrival date was - seemingly inadvertently - revealed on international promos for Apex Legends' eighth season of content, but with that date now here, and still no sign of a Switch release, all eyes were on Respawn for more news.

Thankfully the developer has now delivered, announcing that Apex Legends will be heading to Switch on 9th March. That's not ideal, of course, given that other platforms will be a month into Season 8 by that point, but Respawn is attempting to address the disparity by granting Switch players the first 30 levels of the current battle pass for free. Additionally, double XP will be awarded on the platform for the first two weeks after launch.

Respawn has also confirmed Apex Legends' Nintendo release will include support for cross-platform play, all seasonal content, and full feature parity with the other versions of the game.

"Porting Apex Legends to its smallest screen yet is a major achievement, and we couldn't have done it without our friends at Panic Button," the developer wrote in its announcement post. "We're very proud of what the team has been able to achieve with some smart optimisations for the Switch port to deliver a full-featured Apex Legends experience on the go."

Apex Legends' Season 8, titled Mayhem, is now underway on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, introducing new playable hero Fuse, a new lever-action rifle known as The 30-30 Repeater, a new Battle Pass and Ranked Season, plus some major changes to the Kings Canyon map. Switch owners will be able to experience all of that themselves starting 9th March.

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