Apex Legends Season 22 Doubles Paid Battle Passes

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Apex Legends Season 22 is bringing substantial changes to the way Battle Passes and rewards are handed out to players, with developer Respawn Entertainment announcing that each season will now have two shorter Battle Passes instead of one, and that it’s removing the ability to utilize in-game premium currency to purchase them. As you might expect, the community is outraged by the effectively price escalate for premium Battle Passes in the free-to-play shooter.

Starting with Season 22 in August, Apex Legends will now have two half-season Battle Passes, with one available at the start of the season and the other in the middle of the season. Each will have 60 tiers of rewards for a total of 120, which is an escalate from the 110 rewards in the previous system and means there will be less grinding to achieve the final rewards and most unique skins.

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However, this comes at a cost. There will still be a free Battle Pass rewards track, but each premium half-season Battle Pass will cost $9.99 in real-world currency, effectively doubling the price, whereas the premium Battle Pass previously cost 950 Apex Coins. They were available as part of a 1,000-coin bundle for $9.99, or could be earned by playing and completing the previous Battle Pass, making them a reward for continued engagement and keeping the servers full of players.

In addition to the standard Premium Pass, the novel “Premium+” tier will replace the existing “Premium Pack.” It costs $19.99, has 10 tier skips, and doubles the number of Exotic Shards, as well as special Premium+ character skin variants, and grants access to all characters for the duration of the Battle Pass. Over the course of the entire season, that works out to $40 compared to 2,800 Apex Coins (coin packs available at 2,150 for $20 or 4,350 for $40), though Respawn says that “the decision to move from AC to real-world currency is not one we made lightly, but it allows us to lower the price of Premium+ for our community.”

Yes, “reduction.”

One thing that’s not clear is how long the Battle Passes will be available for. Will the first Season Pass expire in the “split” or will it last until the end of the season? Each pass has roughly half the rewards, but there’s also potentially half the time to complete them, meaning there’ll still be that fear of missing out (FOMO) and the need to grind for the final tier of rewards.

Sure, that went down a treat with fans, largely because it effectively doubled the cost, but it also called into question how fit Apex Legends is as a game if EA is resorting to that kind of tactic. It’s the equivalent of Netflix, Disney+, or PS Plus raising prices over time as their ability to attract novel subscribers diminished as a way to escalate quarterly revenue. EA will be playing the idea that having more Battle Passes means that dedicated players will spend more, compensating for players who are put off by that decision from spending or playing.

There’s a flip side to that, though, which is that having shorter Battle Passes (free and paid) shortens the rhythm of play and engagement that seasonal structures have. Instead of having that substantial refresh every 3 months, it’s now every 1.5 months, which they hope will assist polished out the peaks and troughs they may be seeing right now.

Source: Apex Legends

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