Anyone caught playing this game deserves to be publicly named and shamed. The free-to-play shooter has drastically altered its in-game battle pass function to be entirely cash-only.
The upcoming 22nd season of Apex Legends, a game with known exploitable issues in professional matches, adheres to the ESG agenda by bastardizing the concept of femininity with unattractive, androgynous characters and will permanently ban players for swearing. This season will bring significant changes to its battle pass system.
Respawn Entertainment, a development studio I once admired when “Titanfall” was new, will now issue two separate battle passes per season, instead of the single battle pass that had been the standard.
You’d think this would double the content, right? Two is greater than one, after all. But this is modern game development, so nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems. Starting from Season 22, each battle pass in Apex Legends will have a maximum level cap of 60, compared to the previous seasonal passes which had a cap of 110.
Theoretically, combining both battle passes might give you more content, but individually, you’re getting about half the content—or rather, half the filler is gone. But what about pricing, you might wonder?
Respawn Entertainment claims this change makes the battle pass system “more attainable” with “greater value for your time and money.” However, each new half-season battle pass will still cost around $10, just like before. The catch is you can no longer save up and accumulate “Apex Coins” to unlock future premium tiers. Now, a single battle pass with roughly half the content requires a $10 deposit into Electronic Arts’ bank account.
The reason for such a change is clear: money. They say it makes the world go round, yet the only ones who seem to have it are trillionaires determined to turn everything you once loved into the same progressive and diverse bullshit.
You’ll no longer be able to buy premium content with Apex Coins in the future, as Respawn Entertainment has introduced a new $20 Premium+ tier. They claim this is “more affordable” compared to the old tier, which cost 2800 Apex Coins (around $30 USD). While this new model is technically cheaper, it also provides you with half the content.
Respawn’s “value” argument focuses on the reward “refresh” across all three Battle Pass tiers. These adjustments include the removal of lesser-used rewards, awarding twice as many Crafting Materials across a season, three more Legendary/Epic Apex Packs per Battle Pass, and additional rewards for the Premium+ tier. According to Respawn, these changes result in “double the Battle Pass rewards across the entire season.”
Unsurprisingly, the community response to Respawn’s Battle Pass changes has been overwhelmingly negative. The official Apex Legends subreddit is flooded with complaints, their Twitter announcement is filled with critical replies, and a wave of disgruntled players have left negative reviews on Steam.
Whether the players who continually engage with this free-to-pay trash will follow through on their threats remains to be seen. Respawn Entertainment is unlikely to revert their decision, especially under Electronic Arts’ direction, given that live services account for around 70% of their total revenue.
For the fiscal year 2024, EA generated $7.562 billion in net revenue, with $5.547 billion coming from live services and “other” sources, including subscriptions and microtransactions. This means roughly 73.35% of EA’s annual revenue comes from live service sales alone which is fucking staggering.
Respawn aims to capitalize on the retardation of its consumers, who are more than likely children or happen to be adults who are mentally children by introducing this new system that offers half the seasonal content for the same price, but twice as frequently.
Despite player outrage, they are likely to succeed, given the fact that studies have shown there’s a greater demand for in-game microtransactions over new physical games themselves amongst children alongside the fact that Apex Legends maintains strong player numbers, with over 240,000 concurrent players on Steam alone every day.
While player numbers haven’t plummeted since the announcement, Apex Legends has seen a steady decline in player retention over the past several months. On May 21st, the game had roughly 340,000 concurrent players, but numbers have dropped rapidly, especially after the release of Ubisoft’s XDefiant, another free-to-play arena shooter.
Despite my personal hopes that Apex Legends meets a swift end, it remains uncertain. These changes to the battle pass system have not been well-received by a large portion of the user base and may lead to more players quitting in the coming weeks. However, the increased revenue from the cash-only premium passes will likely surpass the losses, even as Respawn faces backlash for their greed.
