The Battle Pass system has become one of the most popular forms of monetization in video games. When we buy one of these, we can level it up by playing to get a good amount of cosmetics and sometimes enough credits to buy the next pass. Apex Legends is one of the games that uses this system, but it announced that it is going to change the way its battle pass works and players are not happy with the news.
Through a post on the game’s official websiteEA and Respawn explained how that system will change starting with Season 22, which is expected to arrive in August 2024. It’s a bit complicated.
To start, there will not be one Battle Pass per season, but rather per division. That means there will be two per season. They will retain the free and paid routes, but Each will have 60 levels instead of 110So far, the changes don’t seem that serious. Two shorter passes can help distribute the rewards better. The problem comes when we talk about prices.
Until now, we paid 950 Apex Coins for a ‘premium’ pass and that meant that with the rewards from one pass – in which we could earn up to 1300 Coins – we could buy the next one. Starting with Apex Legends Season 22, the price will change to $9.99 (approximately 40,000 Colombian pesos). That means we’ll have to take money out of our own pockets to buy each pass. To make matters worse, there are now two passes per season, meaning the equivalent cost will be double.
It is true that now each pass will have more valuable rewards. The paid track will feature double the amount of crafting materials, three additional Apex Packs, and three themed Legendary Packs, while the free track will include an Epic Character Skin, an Epic Weapon Skin, and an Epic Emote. The old ‘premium’ pack that allowed you to “skip” 25 levels will now cost $19.99. It will only skip 10 levels but will double several rewards and add access to all characters and two legendary skins.
Still, many consider it not worth it.
The reaction of the players
The players of Apex Legends have reacted almost unanimously negatively to the change in the battle pass system.
These are just some of the reactions we have seen in response. to the announcement on the game’s official Twitter account.
“This is horrible”
“This is some of the worst EA shit I’ve ever seen”
“Please stop this and focus on fixing the game.”
“Do you want to kill the game? Because this will kill the game. Don’t even bother releasing Season 22.”
“I will never buy a battle pass for this game again”
While EA and Respawn are presenting these changes as if they were a positive thing for players, it is clear that they do not see it that way. This is being interpreted as a way to squeeze players’ pockets even further. Apex Legends and the community is angry. Some are even calling for a boycott.
Apex Legends It’s a free-to-play game, and microtransactions are a valid way to make money in this model. But this change to the pass system actually feels predatory and overly aggressive. We hope Electronic Arts changes its mind and cancels these plans.
