Apex Legends, the latest game from the creators of Titanfall, caused huge waves when it launched by surprise out of nowhere this time last month. There was no warning, no hefty hype window, no E3 rumblings, it was just reveal/announcement/release all in the same day. It then become an overnight phenomenon, and everyone forgot how we didn’t even know it existed before February. However, it turns out that someone did know about it, since the Apex Legends map leaked almost a year ago.
While this leaked map was eventually spotted the weekend before the game’s reveal, when we first started talking about the rumors of a game called Apex Legends, the map itself was actually leaked nearly a year ago on Reddit by user hiticonic (spotted by PC Gamer). It was posted in a thread called “Alleged Minimap for Rumored Titanfall Battle Royal Game,” and as you can tell by the poor spelling and the fact that it was an anonymous posting of a boring map picture, it did not go at all well. In fact, it was completely ignored, gathering just 14 comments and no upvotes.
Of course it was ignored, as even ignoring that nobody believes leaks on 4chan or Reddit, look at that map above. It looks like a Command & Conquer skirmish map, with boring names such as “Artillery,” “Wetlands,” “Water Treatment,” and the slightly litigious “Thunderdome.” And yet, if you compare it to the real Apex Legends map at the top of this page, things have been moved around a little, but otherwise it’s pretty accurate. Even the odd dinosaurs still feature.
The comments on the Reddit thread were particularly interesting, given what we know now. “I really hope this doesn’t happen” and “they better not add battle royale in the next game” are good, but it’s the (admittedly understandable) cries of “fake” and “it’s not true” that are so funny now. So maybe we should start believing every leak and wild rumor we hear now? That’s the sensible thing to do, right?
