Get an early sneak peek at Apex Legends' next character
UPDATE: And here's the official reveal trailer.
UPDATE 8.05pm: Following the premature reveal of Apex Legends' next playable character earlier today, developer Respawn has now made it official. Apex Legends' 14th Season will usher in the scope-wielding Vantage - real name Mara - who gets her animated introduction in the new Stories from the Outlands video below.
Survive, as the video is officially titled, tells Vantage's backstory, picking up as she stumbles across the remains of the mysterious GDS Vantage while out hunting on her snowy home world of Págos. As her curiosity increases, and ignoring her mother's warnings to leave well alone, she one day descends into the Vantage's cavernous wreckage, where she discovers the truth - that it's a prison ship and her mother was its captive.
One failed escape later, Mara, accompanied by her new bat-like companion Echo, is trapped and on the brink of death - so her mother (wrongfully convicted, Respawn notes elsewhere) does the only thing she can, giving up her freedom by alerting the authorities to her whereabouts in the hope they can help.
And that's where the story ends - for now, at least. Expect plenty more on Vantage - including her full abilities breakdown - ahead of Apex Legends' 14th season, titled Hunted, which comes to PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC on 9th August.
ORIGINAL STORY 3.23pm: Respawn Entertainment has accidentally revealed the next character that'll be joining the roster in Apex Legends.
The self-inflicted leak comes ahead of the newest episode of Stories from the Outlands, a series of animated shorts before each season that introduces the next Legend, which will be released at 4pm today.
Players who logged into the Apex Legends client on 23rd July may have spotted the preview image uploaded by Respawn. It's since been removed from the client, but not before it could be immortalised on the internet.
Reddit user TheKzX uploaded a screenshot of the preview for Stories from the Outlands: Survive, which also had a greyed out button to watch the video. The caption names the new season as Apex Legends: Hunted, beginning on 9th August.
No one that spotted the preview was able to watch Survive but the new Legend is shown close-up, giving players more than enough information to start piecing things together.
The new character shown has dark hair and wears a headset, with dark smudges along their cheekbones. They look distinctly like Vantage, a character that was a part of the huge Apex Legends leak back in March.
Later in the day, the Apex Legends Twitter account posted a new video captioned "Distress transmission incoming..." to tease the announcement of a new character, with Survive being announced the next day.
Players are now anticipating Vantage to be announced as the next playable Legend later today, revealed to be a sniper in the March leak.