Respawn Entertainment announced a big change coming to Apex Legends Season 22: a new battle pass system. The developer says that this will “improve” the player’s experience and progression, but many fans are either confused or angry about the changes.
All the tweaks are expanded upon in a blog post, but the highlight is that there will now be two battle passes per season instead of one. All other updates are based on this one change. For instance, the level cap to get the final track item has been reduced from 110 to 60.
A lot of rewards have been doubled, but only if you buy both battle passes. You can earn 400 Apex Coins (AC) from the free tier instead of 200 if you do both, and there are twice as many crafting materials and legendary/epic/reactive cosmetics on the premium track. The more-costly battle pass will also feature more Apex Packs and cosmetics.
The Premium Bundle has also been removed and replaced with Premium+, which will cost $20 per track (so $40 over one season), and will feature exclusive legendary skins, and more exotic shards and crafting materials.
However, what’s upsetting players is that you can no longer use Apex coins (AC), the game’s premium currency, to buy a battle pass. While you don’t earn a lot of AC in game, you do earn some, and with certain battle pass rewards, you can earn enough to cut down on the cost of next season’s. Now, while the battle pass will still net you some AC that you can use in the store, it cannot be applied to buying the track.
“The decision to move from AC to real world currency is not one that we made lightly, but it does allow us to decrease the price of Premium+ for our community,” the blog post read.
It also is more expensive for the player overall. The premium track used to cost 950 AC, which came out to around $10. Each half-season battle pass now costs $10 on its own.
Players aren’t too happy. Many in the game’s subreddit are saying they won’t buy in, and might drop the game if this comes through (although this is a common refrain in live-service communities).
“This isn’t helpful, this is just a shameless money grubbing from EA,” said one user. “This is how Apex dies,” said another.
The comments are similar on X (formerly Twitter) as well. In response to some concerns, the official Apex Legends account reminded one user that players will get a chance to test the new system at the start of Season 22. “You can complete challenges to unlock the first Battle Pass,” the post says.
We understand that many players will want to try out the new system first. At the start of Season 22, you can complete challenges to unlock the first Battle Pass. pic.twitter.com/HU22NjfxLD
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) July 8, 2024
Earlier this year, Respawn announced that Season 20 would feature a ton of updates to gameplay, the EVO system, how armor is obtained, and a lot more. It looks like 2024 will continue to be a big year for Apex Legends, although maybe not in the way developers hoped.
