Starting with Season 22, EA and Respawn Entertainment are changing how the Apex Legends Battle Pass works, and fans are not happy.
The Apex Legends community is not happy with EA and Respawn Entertainment’s decision to split Seasons into two halves, with players having to buy the Premium Battle Pass for each half. They were previously able to purchase Battle Passes with Apex Coins earned via the prior Battle Pass. However, with the new changes, they can only purchase the Battle Pass by paying up, and will now have to do so every half Season. The total amount of money required to maintain the Battle Pass perks throughout a Season is now $20.
The general sentiment among the community is that this is likely a business decision from EA to squeeze more revenue out of the Apex Legends player base and please its shareholders. Developer Respawn Entertainment appears to have given up on acquiring new players or bringing back those who previously left, and resorted to other ways to increase battle pass earnings. Furthermore, the taking away the ability to pay for the Battle Pass with Apex Coins earned from finishing previous seasons is seen as a major disservice to the active player base.
The decision to double the price of the battle pass and remove the ability to earn credit towards the next one suggests that the developers are falling short of expected revenue. It’s a pretty aggressive approach, and it remains to be seen how long-time players will react to it.
Apex Legend’s prior monetization tactics have been worth criticizing in the past, especially since most characters are locked behind a significant time investment or require spending money. The sheer number of in-game currencies and unlockable items, including Apex Coins, Crafting Metals, Exotic Shards, Apex Packs, Character Skins, Weapon Skins, Reactives, Reactive Variants, Legend-Thematic Packs, Level Skips, is quite overwhelming, especially to newcomers.
Going by the official wording, EA and Respawn Entertainment seem to see these changes as an evolution of the prior Battle Pass that will “improve” the player experience and progression goals. The contents of Season 22’s first Premium Battle Pass can only be earned during the first two weeks of Season 22. Levels to obtain final key cosmetic items have been dropped to 60 per Battle Pass. Rewards from past Battle Passes that frequently weren’t being used have been removed.
Free Track rewards will be refreshed with the following available across each of the seasonal split’s Battle Passes:
- 200 AC
- 7 Apex Packs†
- 1 complete Epic set
Meanwhile, Premium Track rewards will be refreshed with the following available per Battle Pass:
- 2400 CM
- 1300 AC
- 10 Exotic Shards
- Various Apex Packs†
- 1 Reactive
- 1 Legendary Weapon skin
- 2 Legendary
- 3 Epic Legend skins
- 7 Epic weapon skins
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by EA. It was launched in February 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, in March 2021 for Nintendo Switch, and in March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
