Instead of just one premium Battle Pass, how would you feel about paying for two... per season? Oh, and you can't use the currency accused from the previous Battle Pass to buy it. That's the new strategy Apex Legends is taking from the beginning of Season 22, which has drawn heavy criticism from the Battle Royale's community. According to Respawn Entertainment, the change will "improve your experience and progression goals".
Essentially, once the update comes into effect, seasons will be split into two with a Battle Pass to accommodate each half, split into three tiers: free, premium, and premium+. You could unlock the first Battle Pass on the premium path if you play during the first two weeks of a season and finish a set of challenges, but you'll always need to buy the second one if you want the rewards available — all Battle Passes are priced at $9.99. If you don't play in the first 14 days and want those premium rewards, you'll now need to fork out $20 per season to cover both Battle Passes. Double that cost if you want the Battle Passes on the premium+ paths.
This is likely to sound confusing, so observe the graph below for a better idea of what's happening:
Such a drastic change was never going to go down well with the game's community, but what makes the matter even worse is you can no longer use any of the Apex Coins (the premium currency) you have to buy the Battle Passes anymore; you must use real-world money through a charge via the PS Store.
This is a move away from how other live-service titles operate Battle Passes, where the incentive was if you completed every tier, you'd have more than enough premium currency to buy the next season's Battle Pass, essentially making it free. Respawn Entertainment states the decision to make this change was "not one that we made lightly, but it does allow us to decrease the price of Premium+ for our community".
The new Battle Passes will offer double the amount of crafting materials, more Apex Packs, and new Legend-Thematic Packs across a shorter 60 levels, with two available every season. Opt for the premium+ option of Battle Passes and you get every character unlocked during its duration and two Premium+ Legendary Character Skin Variants.
The announcement has received heavy criticism from the Apex Legends community, with the tweet sharing the change drawing overwhelmingly negative responses. @BlackkBoye said: "You still have time to undo this and save face in front of the entire community. Absolutely horrible decision made clearly by the higher ups at Apex Legends." @Charliearliee added: "100% you're trying to kill this game aren't you? Cheaters at an all time high. players at an all time low and now we can't even buy a battle pass with the Apex coins we earn from the previous one?"
[source ea.com]
Comments 17
It looks like special reward for long time players. (sarcasm)
That's a bummer, for the last 5-6 seasons I've been getting the battle pass with the currency earned from the previous battle pass as I always get quite far to earn enough. But requiring money instead each battle pass and then multiplying it by two each season is just pure greed and hopefully will blow up in their faces and will change their decision.
If not then I won't be playing as much anymore, and luckily there's some more live service games coming out I can replace it with.
If they kill it, we can only hope it stays dead.
I don’t understand people that don’t come to the immediate conclusion that they should just delete it.
I’m fine with GaaS as a whole, but people have supported too much greed. It’s insane to me that people ever bought cosmetics that are 20$ or higher.
It’s a horrible message, FULL games are 70$, but you’re willing to pay 20$ for cosmetics. That’s horrible. Cosmetics should be 8$ at the absolute most for premium content.
I quit Apex about 4 months ago. Glad I did.
Disney Speedstorm did something very similar a month or so ago, the "purchase pass w/ in game currency" option was removed, you now need to pay real cash, and the season was split into 2, so 2 passes, AND, they added extra sets of single player races that have their own Vault Pass you need to buy to unlock stuff.
Have to imagine it's only a matter of time before Fornite goes this route, and I can finally stop playing. Well that or first person view, which I can't and won't do. I spent $8 on Fortnite about 3 years ago and have purchased every season pass since, plus a few extra in season ones here and there, at no extra cost. Not sure how they make so much money.🤷♂️
'Premium' and then 'Premium+'.
What a joke
Oh good. A new way to screw more money out of gamers.
How about a day pass? Or pay $1 every time you load the game.
Glad I stopped playing, Respawn is a shell of their former selves :/
Another day of EA making bad decisions 🤣
I still think Lego 2k racing has everyone beat. Lego 2k is a single player game that is loaded down with micro transactions. Almost every "extra vehicle" costs a huge amounts of money and you get almost nothing by finishing the in game racing.
The reason companies do this predatory crap is that PEOPLE CONTINUE TO BUY IT!!
Battle Passes, Loot Boxes, In Game Currency, Micro Transactions…. Be smart and stop supporting companies that do this rubbish. It’s not brain surgery - vote with your wallet.
They cut support for mobile MTX last year or however prior that was so got to make that money somehow again I guess?
Not fussed as don't play it but not surprised either with state of EA or any others either.
@Arnna Unfortunately companies will not stop doing these practices. We already lost the battle when those rich whales got addicted and became golden goose for these companies.
You can't convinced those rich whales with conventional method and say be smart and don't support these practices.
The same as rich people who bought crypto and lost a lot of money. They will keep doing dumb things with their money either they buy NFT or other scam.
@PuppetMaster I understand what you’re saying but I think consumers still have effective people power in certain circumstances. Remember horse armour DLC? I think we should still try rather than just laying down and putting up with whatever crappy business practices are inflicted on us.
Respawn are owned by EA, enough said.
So TL;DR "Free" is now $9.99 a month, and "Paid is now $20/mo or $40/mo if you want it to be worthwhile". For a "free 2 play" game. To quote a certain bobblehead: "Why would anybody play this?"
I don't get the gaming industry. Whenever they find something lucrative they don't hesitate to push it comically far until it collapses under its own weight. It's like they can't help themselves.
@PuppetMaster Crypto was at least a little different, it was a Ponzi scheme to make a bunch of money and they all wanted to be the one that was at the top cashing out before everyone else got crushed by the avalanche, like the normal stock market, except forever destroying the GPU market in the process. Game whaling is just a way to lose money...there's no actual gains they're trying to get through deception.
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