Apex Legends’ new Battle Pass plans promise greater rewards, but for more of your real-world money

rockpapershotgun.com:

Ever since the hat was invented by Valve Corporation in 2009, mankind has grappled with questions of fairness, worthiness, and pride – at least as they pertain to microtransations in free-to-play games. Shooty battle royale Apex Legends is the latest to posit an answer, that being "the Battle Pass should cost more money".

In a post detailing BP-specific changes to expect in Apex’s upcoming Season 22, publishers EA announced that the Premium Battle Pass will, from Season 22 onward, only be sold for $10 in real-world cash – a major change from previous passes, that were buyable with in-game currency that could be earned through play. There’ll also be two separate Premium Battle Passes per season, taking the total cost per-season to $20. Cue outrage, the game’s subreddit filling in minutes with players announcing their immediate uninstall.

In fairness to the Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells crowd, this change could represent a major price hike for regular players when Season 22 launches on August 6th. Previous Premium Battle Passes cost 950 Apex Coins, the aforementioned in-game currency, but by progressing through the pass’s tiers, you could eventually earn that amount back in rewards. Which could then be spent on the next season’s Battle Pass, and so on, potentially daisy-chaining BP purchases without ever needing to buy a fresh pile of Apex Coins with real money.

Now that the Premium Battle Pass is going cash-only, that self-funding cycling is broken, and what replaces it ain’t cheap. At $10 a pop, with two per season and usually four seasons in a year, that’s an annual cost of $80 – just four bucks shy of a standard Netflix sub. For skins and taunts. Yeesh.

Nonetheless, EA’s post argues that the new system will in fact "up the value" for players. While each individual Premium Battle Pass will only have 60 levels apiece, down from 110, when completed they’ll fork over more crafting materials and Apex Pack loot crates than previous passes did. And since there’ll be twice