Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment announced last week it was overhauling its battle pass system with the start of the game’s 22nd season, set to begin in early August. To say the announcement went poorly would be an understatement: The player base is furious, and showing that anger by review-bombing Apex Legends on Steam.
Apex Legends’ recent review score has dropped to overwhelmingly negative after more than 24,000 negative reviews were posted in the first half of July. Why are players so mad? Respawn previously sold its seasonal battle passes once per season, for 950 Apex Coins (roughly $10) for the premium battle pass or 2,800 Apex Coins (a bit over $20) for the premium bundle pass. Starting with season 22, Apex Legends players will have to pay twice per season — $9.99 for premium or $19.99 for premium plus for each half of the season, effectively doubling the price. On top of that, the battle pass will no longer be purchasable with in-game currency, just real money. Apex Coins do cost real money, but you were previously able to earn the currency from completing the battle pass, meaning you could get the battle pass from just playing the game. The free tier, with less rewards, still exists.
Starting with Season 22, we’re evolving the Apex Legends Battle Pass to improve your experience and progression goals.
Read on to learn everything to know about the upcoming changes or check out the infographic below to learn more.
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) July 8, 2024
Respawn said in its blog post that players can, however, earn “double the Battle Pass rewards across the entire season by completing both Battle Passes.” Players don’t see the added value, though — just nickel-and-diming. People with hundreds, even thousands, of hours in Apex Legends are sounding off in Steam reviews to express their displeasure: “Decisions to remove the sale of Battlepass for coins is unacceptable. I will never launch this garbage again,” one person wrote. Another reviewer, with nearly 700 hours in Apex Legends, asked: “Are [you for real] with this decision? I must pay every 45 days 10$?”
Many of the reviewers are vowing to uninstall the game should Respawn not reverse the decision. “I’ve 2000h on APEX, never missed a season from season 4 till now, but I think this will be my last season on APEX,” someone wrote.
Polygon has reached out to Respawn for more comment.
Of course, these battle bass woes are on top of some major problems with its esports league, Apex Legends Global Series. Earlier in the week, ESL FACEIT Group, which is in charge of payments for the event, confirmed to Polygon that a “systems error” caused players to get “incorrect prize payouts.” In total, more than $100,000 was awarded erroneously. The company is working to fix the issue. Back in March, the North American Apex Legends finals were postponed after someone hacked into the tournament games and gave the pro players cheating tools, like aim bots.
Apex Legends is a free-to-play game, and Respawn makes much of its money through the battle pass and other purchasable items, like skins. Since its release in 2019, Apex Legends has earned Electronic Arts $3.4 billion in lifetime net bookings, according to a recent earnings report. EA also clarified that net books declined for Apex Legends in the 2024 fiscal year. Currently, Apex Legends is hovering around 85,000 to 300,000 concurrent players at any given time, per SteamDB. It’s the lowest player count since January 2022. Apex Legends is also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC via the EA App, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, as well on mobile as Apex Legends Mobile. Individually, Respawn doesn’t release numbers, but in August 2023, Apex Legends had 18 million monthly players.
