Why Apex Legends is Reinventing its Battle Pass Amidst Player Feedback

**Did Revival Kill Apex Legends?**The decision to charge players for Battle Pass 22 didn’t sit well with the Apex Legends community. Faced with massive backlash, the studio had no choice but to backtrack—but was the damage already done?Get the full scoop in our latest blog post!

Charly Heude 12/09/2024 17:02

Apex Legends has been hit by a wave of Review Bombing on Steam to protest its Season 22 Battle Pass. Over 50,000 reviews were made in just a few weeks, and more than 80,000 at the time of writing. After weeks of player dissatisfaction, Respawn made an announcement via Twitter that received mixed reactions from its community: “You spoke, we listened.”

In their statement, Respawn reassures players that they are aware of all the current issues with Apex Legends and are working on them. The Battle Pass can now be purchased with Apex Coins, and it will unlock enough coins to buy the next pass. The team’s current priorities are cheaters, game stability, and the quality of “Life Updates,” which are major changes to Apex Legends.

The Season 22 patch notes will be released on August 5, 2024 and will include various game improvements and major bug fixes (details not provided). The update is still scheduled for August 6, 2024.

Screenshot of Apex Legends' Steam page showing over 86,000 extremely negative reviews (taken on July 30, 2024)

Despite the Step Back, Apex Legends May Never Fully Recover

A rift has formed between EA and the Apex Legends community: many are still upset over the publisher’s attempt to extract money from them. So much so that many players have not only uninstalled the game but are also calling for a boycott of Season 23.

It remains to be seen whether the game can bounce back from this fiasco, as many of the negative reviews for Apex will not be removed by players despite Respawn’s mea culpa. The community is already bracing for another battle with the publisher, which is likely to try again next season, hence the call to boycott future Apex Battle Passes. The frustration seems to be amplified by other negative aspects of Apex, as the community claims:

Most skins are just recolors
The events lack any substance
The Mythic Store is overpriced and the introduction of paid Mythic recolors is abusive
Apex has had only one collaboration since launch (and it was overpriced)

Do you think EA has crossed the line this time?