Apex Legends Mobile, the app version of the popular FPS battle royale by Respawn Entertainment, is still in a slow beta test rollout stage and, while Africa as a whole now has access, South Africa doesn’t.

Respawn has revealed that five new countries will have official access to the beta: Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon and Peru. While we’re happy fellow African nation Egypt can now get in on things we’d be lying if we said we didn’t feel left out.

If you live in any of those countries you can download the game from the Google Play Store as it’s only available on Android right now.

Here we can see that the beta has been downloaded around 50 000 times and was last updated on 14th May 2021.

These five countries join India and the Philippines which were originally the testing grounds for the game.

In the closed beta FAQ we can get a glimpse of what’s on offer. Apex Legends Mobile seeks parity with the PC and console ports by also being free and offering cosmetic items and a Battle Pass as ways of monetisation.

Cross-play is not available and, while we may be jealous of those with access, all progression made in the beta will be wiped so this really is free public bug testing for Respawn and publisher EA.

It’s worth ending off by stating that there are ways around these geo-restrictions. Things like VPNs have long been used to skirt rules like this and, if you look around, an APK of the game can likely be found. We recommend against both of these, however. Unauthorised access into beta testing could result in an account ban and downloading sketchy unofficial APKs is a good way to compromise the security of your phone.

The aforementioned FAQ even makes mention of this:

Q: Which digital storefronts will feature the game?

A: To start with during our tests, the game will only be available on Google Play. We should note that the game should not be sideloaded through a third party site or direct APK download.