Apex Legends director explains reversal of controversial Battle Pass changes

The developers of Apex Legends have reversed controversial changes to the game’s Battle Pass, and the game’s director has explained how the initial adjustments came about and why they changed course.

On July 8, Respawn announced massive changes to the Apex Battle Pass. The most controversial part of the overhaul was how players could buy the Pass, making it only purchasable through real currency instead of in-game Apex Coins.

The change was walked back on July 24, as the developers apologized to their player base and pledged to “get better” at transparently communicating why and when massive alterations are on the horizon.

In an interview with IGN, Steven Ferreira, the Game Director for Apex Legends, laid out exactly why the controversial shift away from in-game currency was made. He said the decision came down to giving players more options with their hard-earned cash.

Ferreira claimed Respawn felt players were getting more value from real currency as it allowed them “to make choices” compared to when they were locked into using Apex Coins.

“And that’s why you’ve seen a shift in focus towards currencies and things that’ll allow players to choose where do they want to spend that, what do they want to spend it on. As opposed to, we’ve made 110 levels versus bespoke content to unlock.”

Ferreira also confirmed the change was made by Respawn, not EA. They looked through the data and saw how few players were “engaging” with the pass and equipping the content they unlocked.

“So our focus was to shift development of that content over to content that players are actually equipping, and then do find valuable. And like I said, moving some of that over into unlocking currencies that’ll allow you to choose what are the things you want,” he said.

The director also reiterated the previous apology given out to players, and he claimed that the devs now understand that this kind of change needs to be rolled out slowly with more community feedback and engagement.

“Just dropping this onto the community without engaging the community in the process of designing this, I think, for something that clearly the community cares about it as much as the Battle Pass, was a misstep on our side,” Ferreira said.

Apex players have received the developer’s response well, but they are still apprehensive about the game’s future.