They probably saw Roblox, and realized that it would be a much better chance of competing to leverage and extend their existing platform to compete and capture kids and tweens that are aging up a little from Roblox. Every social media company is always gunning for the 12-16-year-olds because that’s who makes them “the next big thing,” so that seems like a great option for Epic.
Pretty similar, if I recall, to how Fortnite didn’t start out as Battle Royale and pivoted once it saw where the market was going.
But that’s just how it appears to me - I’m an Apex Legends player.