Apex Legends Mobile will not support emulation, controllers on launch

Apex Legends Mobile will not support mobile emulation or mobile-specific controllers on launch.

The developers revealed that due to technical issues, controller support and emulators will not be available for the mobile version of the battle royale.

With controllers, the development team acknowledged fans’ desire to use controllers on mobile and the extra usability they provide. The team mentioned it is “actively working on” controller support, but it has yet to get it working quite right with the game. Senior director of product Myke Hoff said fans can expect to see controller support in the “very near future,” but there is still some work to be done with integration.

Speaking about emulation, the development team revealed players will not be able to use mobile emulators at launch. Some players prefer to use emulators on PC to play mobile games. Hoff shared that emulators are frequently flagged as hacking software by the game’s anti-cheat system, so players who use them may be putting the integrity of their account at risk.

But Hoff also said the development team is having conversations with Google, who is currently working on a native mobile emulator for PC. It seems as though emulator support may still be a ways off in the future, since the team hasn’t decided exactly what emulators they want to support or how they want to go about the process. Hoff, however, assured fans it’s something Respawn is “digging into.” At launch, fans should not use emulators to avoid being flagged by the anti-cheat system.

Apex Legends Mobile launches worldwide on May 17.