There'll still be two battle passes per season, but the switch to real money only is being scrapped.
You can see it coming a million light years away: A game developer announces something that its players are obviously going to be infuriated by, and then a week or two later posts a black jpg with white text that says, one way or another, 'Oops! Our bad.'
So it has gone for Apex Legends, which today reversed the most unpopular aspect of the new battle pass structure it announced two weeks ago.
The changes were controversial for a couple reasons. The first complaint was that Apex will now get two smaller battle passes per season instead of one, effectively doubling the cost of each season's premium tiers. That isn't changing. The second complaint—the bit that is being reversed—was that premium battle pass tracks were no longer going to be obtainable with Apex Coins, a currency that can be earned in the battle passes themselves. Instead, direct $10 USD transactions were going to be the only way to unlock those premium tiers.
Today, Respawn announced that it's scrapping the USD-only part of the plan. Premium battle pass tracks will continue to be obtainable by spending 950 Apex Coins. Since those premium tracks include 1,300 Apex Coins, players who complete a premium battle pass track will be able to use their AC to unlock the next one.
There will still be new real money-only battle pass tiers, which are now called Ultimate tiers. The basic $10 Ultimate tier will include extra Apex Packs and Crafting Metals as instant unlocks, but won't contain cosmetics you can't get in the regular Premium tier that can be unlocked with AC.
An update on our new Battle Pass: pic.twitter.com/ga8NB8cwFBJuly 24, 2024
The change that isn't being reversed—the splitting of each season's battle pass into two—wasn't as unanimously unpopular as the Apex Coins change. It's true that having two 60-tier battle passes per season instead of a single 110-tier battle pass means players have to spend more to unlock roughly the same number of tiers, but in theory they'll get more good things for their trouble. Respawn said that it's cutting out rarely equipped items, and that both of a season's battle passes will include the same kinds of high-value items (eg, legendary skins) that appeared in the highest tiers of one of the old season-long passes.
In an interview with IGN, Apex game director Steven Ferreira said that the two-per-season change was made because a lot of players weren't finishing the season-long battle passes. The idea is that "you can still unlock the equivalent amount of cool content and stuff, but you can do it inside of 45 days," he said. "And you get a faster and a better pacing and cadence of engagement with the Battle Pass over 45 days versus 90."
Respawn also acknowledged a tertiary complaint, that it appeared to be fiddling with monetization rather than taking care of issues players cared about.
"Your priorities are our priorities: cheaters, game stability, and quality of life update are top of mind," said the studio in its announcement. "We need to get better and it's why we're acknowledging them here."
Respawn promises we'll see "a number of improvements and game stability bug fixes'' next month when Season 22 starts. Those changes will be described in patch notes to be published on August 5, the day before the start of the season on August 6.
