Apex Legends Changes the Battle Pass System, and Nobody Likes It
Apex Legends Season 22's battle passes are looking like far worse offers.
Apex Legends players often have long wishlists of things they'd like to see changed in the battle royale game, and while those lists may differ from person to person, the upcoming battle pass changes just jumped to the top three spots on many players' lists. That's because Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment are overhauling the battle pass system in Season 22 in an effort to "improve your experience and progression goals." This evolution includes more crafting materials from the battle pass the removal of items players didn't use as often, but it also means paying more for the battle passes per season as well as the removal of the ability to buy the passes with Apex Coins.
Those last two parts are what have really gotten to players ever since EA announced the planned changes this week. Over on the Apex site, EA confirmed that there will be one battle pass per split in Season 22 as opposed to one battle pass for the whole season. Those battle passes will be shorter individually to amount to more levels overall. The current battle pass has 110 levels, for context, while the two splits' battle passes will have 60 levels each for a total of 120 levels next season.
More levels equals more rewards, so that sounds good at first until you realize that you'll have to pay twice to get the full battle pass experience in Season 22. The price you pay for the battle passes is per split, so you'll have to buy the first one and then second one once Split 2 starts in order to get everything from those. To make matters even worse, you can't buy them with Apex Coins anymore. Instead, they'll cost $9.99 in real world money first, so the Apex Coins that you hoard from each battle pass so that you can buy the next one will now have to be spent on other purchases from the store since they'll have no value when it comes to getting the next battle pass.
EA is also replacing its Premium Bundle for the battle pass which previously gave you 25 tier skips to start out the season. Instead, it only gives you 10 skips now. The new version of this offer called "Premium+" does have things like more Apex Packs, Crafting Metals, and two extra legendary skin variants, but it also costs twice as much at $19.99, so basically $40 if you want both Premium+ Battle Passes for a season. It also includes a perk that makes all legends playable for that battle pass which is pretty pointless for anyone who's been playing Apex for any meaningful amount of time since you're probably sitting on thousands of Legends Tokens that go unused.
The reaction to these battle pass changes has been swift and loud with players calling this the worst decision ever, saying that they're going to quit the game, and so on. It's a rare moment of unity when changes to ranked, matchmaking, and so on sometimes divide players on whether or not they think a change is good or not, but this one's been met with a resounding "no" from players. EA has not yet announced anything else about its battle pass changes after revealing them on Monday, however, so we'll see if this plan goes through or if the blow is softened somehow.
