Apex Legends artwork
Well, this isn’t good news (EA)

From the next season, you’ll no longer be able to pay for Apex Legends with in-game currency, as EA is removing it from the game.

EA has announced a major overhaul of Apex Legends and it’s not good news for anyone that’s not used to spending real money on battle passes.

The entire concept of in-game currency (called AC in Apex Legends) is being removed from the game and instead you’ll have to buy the battle pass with actual money. In fact, with future seasons being split in two you’ll have to buy two battle passes to keep up.

Previously, players could buy just one battle pass and then, if they played the game regularly, earn enough AC from that to buy the next battle pass purely with in-game currency. Now that’s going to be impossible, which is clearly EA’s intent.

According to EA they’re ‘evolving’ the battle pass, with the promise of improving the value and reducing the time needed to unlock high-end items. The reality though, is that a single battle pass will cost £8.99 and the Premium+ track will be £17.99.

There is still a free battle pass track you can play, but the rewards are minimal and far less than what players will be used to from paying for the full battle pass with AC.

The only benefit is that EA will decrease the level needed to earn all rewards from 110 to 60, but you’re certainly paying for that privilege.

There’s a lengthy blog post, with a mind-bogglingly complex chart explaining the changes and different battle pass tracks, but it’s described in the most confusing way possible, so that it’s not immediately obvious what a massive change this – and what a massive amount of money EA will be expecting people to pay.

‘The impact of this change is twofold. It allows us to align seasonal progression more closely with Ranked while also increasing the value for your time,’ says EA.

In an attempt to head off some of the criticism, EA is allowing players to complete challenges to unlock the first battle pass, but there’s no guarantee that will be possible for any of the subsequent ones.

The changes will go into effect from Season 22, which begins on August 6 – so that’s less than a month from now.

As you can imagine, none of this has gone down well with fans, with many of them shocked at the sudden change, and the confusing way EA has announced it.

‘This is some of the most EA s*** I’ve ever seen.’ says Noko in reply to the tweet announcing the news.

‘Yeah, no way I’m getting the battle pass now, I barely got enough time to play a whole season let alone two half seasons,’ says Biast12.

Do you want to kill the game? Cuz this is how you kill the game Don’t even bother releasing Season 22 this way, revert it,’ adds DANNYonPC.

‘I’m usually positive but this is just disappointing. You have one of the best shooters at its core with an amazing community and yet you keep slowly killing it. For the people who still play your game even with the player count being the lowest since 2021, you are just punishing them by making the battle pass now costing real money instead of being able to use AC,’ writes FireDragon.

‘Please, please, please stop this and focus on fixing the actual issues with your game that everyone keeps talking about and wanting so we can see it thrive once more.’

Apex Legends artwork
Apex Legends suddenly got a lot more expensive (EA)

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