Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that Apex Legends will not be arriving on Nintendo Switch this year as originally planned.

The delay was announced in a blog post, where Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier explained that the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has prolonged the port.

The battle royale title was due to launch in the Fall alongside the game's steam release, but has now been pushed back to an undisclosed date in 2021.

Though no details were announced, this delay may impact the soft launch of Apex Legends - something EA CEO Andrew Wilson previously confirmed would be taking place before the end of the year.

EA has already pulled Plants vs. Zombies 3 from soft launch, therefore may look to concentrate its efforts outside of mobile for the time being.

Unexpected challenges

"This year has brought on unexpected new challenges, to put it mildly, and we don’t want to rush anything out," wrote Grenier.

"And of course, when Apex Legends does launch on Switch, it’ll come with support for cross-platform play, our latest seasonal content, and full feature parity with the other versions of the game," he added.

"We can’t wait to get Apex Legends into your hands (or your TV-connected dock) on Switch."

PocketGamer.biz reached out to EA regarding Apex Legends on mobile, however, the company refused to comment and stated that it will "share more information when it's available."

More recently, Respawn announced that the seventh season of Apex Legends - titled Ascension - would introduce Scottish astrophysicist Horizon as a new character, a new map set in the clouds called Olympus, alongside Clubs and the Trident vehicle. This will all launch on November 4th, 2020.

At the beginning of the year, EA confirmed that the firm has found a partner to help bring Apex Legends to mobile in China.