Runescape community claims 'supreme victory' as developer apologizes and cuts pay-to-win features from hated battle pass

pcgamer.com:

In the wake of a furious backlash from players, Runescape developer Jagex has admitted that it «messed up» and is making major changes to the recently-announced Hero Pass to remove all the «controversial features» that touched off the uproar.

The announcement of the Hero Pass, a new monetization system that was meant to exist alongside Runescape's existing subscription fee, did not go over well: Angry messages flew on the official Runescape forums and subreddit, players claimed they'd quit the game and cancelled their accounts, a review bombing campaign was launched on Steam, and a video on the whole mess posted by YouTuber Asmongold attracted more than 1,200 comments.

Jagex initially tried to quell the unrest and ride it out, saying in a September 6 blog post, «We've been listening to and discussing your feedback on improvements you want to see for the Hero Pass experience.» Now, however, it's thrown in the towel.

"We messed up," Jagex said today. «The launch of Hero Pass alienated and frustrated many in the community. You’ve told us, amongst other things, that it was too pay-to-win and you'd lost important aspects of Daily Challenges.

»We made a significant misjudgment and we are sorry. We need to reflect on that and learn from it. That also means we need to take more time to listen and work with the community. How and why that happened is for another time, what's most important right now is what we're doing about it."

Jagex said it is going to «urgently» patch the game to remove the «pay-to-win» features that players are particularly angry about, after which it will take time to «digest your feedback in detail and engage in a community consultation to drive a thorough re-design and re-development of Hero Pass.» In