Respawn Announces Changes to Apex Legends Battle Pass After Community Outcry - IGN
On July 8th, EA and Respawn Entertainment introduced a new Apex Legends Battle Pass system for Season 22. But after many of the new Battle Pass changes proved unpopular, Respawn is apologizing for its handling of the shift, and making some changes in response to criticism.
On July 8th, EA and Respawn Entertainment introduced a new Apex Legends Battle Pass system for Season 22. But after many of the new Battle Pass changes proved unpopular, Respawn is apologizing for its handling of the shift, and making some changes in response to criticism.
The initial Battle pass changes meant that instead of a single season Battle Pass, there would be two Battle Passes for each split of the season and neither would be able to be purchased with the premium in-game currency, Apex Coins. As a result, players could no longer spend Apex Coins from the previous Battle Pass on the next Season. EA did clarify that players could unlock the first half of Season 22’s Premium Battle Pass rewards by completing a set of challenges in the first two weeks of launch, but no further details were explained at the time.
Splitting the Battle Passes into two also meant doubling the cost of the total money spent for the full season adding up to $20 for both Premium and $40 for the Premium+. This was met with negative feedback from the community and Apex Legends’ Steam store page has been flooded with 76,872 mostly-negative reviews at the time of writing this article.
Today, July 24th, Respawn released an update changing the structure of Battle Passes, apologizing for poor handling of the previous announcement. The Battle Passes remain at two for each season but the latest changes restore the ability for players to purchase the Premium Battle Pass with 950 Apex Coins.
There are now two new Battle Pass tiers called Ultimate and Ultimate+. Ultimate is nearly the same as the Premium, but costs $9.99 USD and cannot be purchased with Apex Coins. It gives players all the Premium rewards and an additional instant unlock of eight Apex Packs and 1,200 Crafting Materials.
Ultimate+ is the highest tier of the Battle Pass including all the previous rewards seen in Ultimate and Premium but with double the Exotic Shards, two exclusive Legendary skin variants, eight Apex Packs, 1,200 Crafting Materials, ten Battle Pass Level unlocks, and the unlocking of every Legend in the game. It costs $19.99 and also cannot be purchased with Apex Coins.
Respawn also stated that with Season 22, through the first split, every player would be able to earn the Premium Battle Pass by completing a series of simple in-game challenges.
