What appears to be a massive Apex Legends leak has popped up online, purportedly showing the next 2 years of content and new Legends in development.
Apex Legends is roughly halfway through Season 12. While there have been some hiccups along the way (such as a bug with the new "Prestige Skins" and some server outages), things have been going pretty well otherwise for Respawn Entertainment. That is, until today -- an absolutely massive leak may have just revealed what the devs have in the works for the next two years.
Is This Apex Legends Leak Real?
Here's the big question: is this Apex Legends leak real? The jury is still out on this one, owing to the sheer amount of content contained within the leaked files.
I first heard tell of the leaks via Apex Legends Status on Twitter. That sent me on a quick search, and I landed on a Reddit thread that hosted a (now-deleted) Mega folder featuring a bunch of videos. This Reddit comment neatly summarizes the highlights of the leaks, which include:
- Names and abilities of the next nine Legends, representing two years and three months of updates
- Heirlooms for Crypto and Valkyrie
- A new, in-progress map called "Divided Moon"
- New Arenas maps
- 2 leaked guns, the Nemesis B-AR and the Fanatic Energy Pistol
I've seen some of these videos. One of them, in particular, shows a person playing Lifeline and using an energy weapon called "Fanatic" represented by what looks like dual-wielded P2020 pistols, presumably serving as a placeholder. The new "Nemesis" energy rifle is also shown in this video, along with several maps that are clearly still in development due to the inclusion of placeholder geometry and textures in some places.
From what I've seen, there's no convincing evidence that this is a fake or a genuine leak -- though, I should caution that I haven't been able to examine absolutely everything included in the leak at the time of writing. Before I break things down further, have a quick gander at this video (unrelated to the leaks) from late last year:
The above video shows Twitch streamer and YouTuber Mok3ysnip3r firing an R99 that has been modded to fire Kraber bullets. There are several such videos showing modded Apex Legends guns on the Internet. Furthermore, a hack was doing the rounds earlier this year that allowed players to dual-wield weapons.
In short, it is entirely possible for the game to be modded in some fashion as evidenced by dozens of videos of YouTubers doing exactly that for entertainment (and thankfully, without actually interfering with any real games). If the guns can be modded, then it stands to reason that it'd be possible for modders to load up custom maps, too. That wouldn't exactly be difficult to do, either, considering that Apex Legends was made in the Source engine; people have been mapping in that engine for nearly 20 years. It is entirely possible that this is an extremely well-crafted leak.
On the other hand, the jankiness of the maps and the clearly unfinished weapons could be representative of in-development content. I have personally seen the state of unreleased games from indie devs and AAA developers alike, and it's entirely reasonable to see development content looking exactly like this.
In summation: this Apex Legends leak is either an extremely well-crafted fake that took dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to craft or the largest leak to happen in the history of Apex Legends.
Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a way to concretely determine whether or not this leak is genuine (and I highly doubt that Respawn Entertainment would comment on it), so take this one with a massive grain of salt. The best hint we'll get will probably be when Season 13 debuts in less than two months; that's when we'll see if any of the new content lines up with the videos shown in this purported leak. In the meantime, you can enjoy the last 40-ish days of Season 12 by playing Apex Legends for free on PC and consoles via its official website.
