Respawn recently brought Duos back to Apex Legends as a permanent game mode after running it as a temporary one several times in 2019. However, Electronic Arts said today that it does not fit the game's underlying co-op element, and the all-participant Solos mode will not get the same treatment.

"Apex Legends" is usually played in teams of three, but the developers have found that reducing that number to two in Duo mode "not only enhances team play, but also has a positive impact on the health of the game with respect to queue times and gameplay systems," Community Manager EA_David explained. However, the experience in solo mode, which completely removes the cooperative play framework, was quite different.

"When we introduced Solos as a limited-time mode last year, we found that it had a negative impact on the game, especially in terms of new player retention," EA_David said. He added, "And while Legend and its abilities are intentionally designed to complement team play and squad building, some of Legend's abilities are rendered useless when played solo. These are just a few of the reasons why we decided not to include solo in today's update."

There is no doubt that some Apex Legend characters, like Bloodhound and Octane, are much better suited for solo play than others. But that's not the only solo-related hassle that Respawn had to deal with: as Eurogamer reported, friends who queued up for a solo play round at the same time would usually join the same game, so solo rivals actually played together in this mode. Players also complained that their solo rivals were actually playing together in this mode. This problem could probably be fixed by changing the matchmaking system, but it does not seem to be a high priority at this time.

The good news for Apex fans who can't play well with others is that EA hasn't given up on the idea: according to the post, the developer is "still looking for ways to make the solo experience possible."

Respawn is also still thinking about cross-play: "We're still working on a way to make it possible for players to play with other people, but we're not sure how we'd do it.