Respawn Eases Apex Legends Season 7 Battle Pass Grind After Fan Outcry

Making money from free-to-play games is never easy or free from controversy, and Apex Legends is no exception. Developer Respawn recently made the decision to lessen the grind of the game's latest battle pass after a bevy of fan complaints rocketed to the top of the game's subreddit.

The Season 7 battle pass brought several changes to the game's BP level system, most notably changing its measure from points to stars. In theory, this simplified things considerably, with ten stars equalling one battle pass level. However, fans felt that the amount of XP required to earn a single star was simply too much. Or, as one top post on the game's subreddit put it: "Proud to announce that after all 5 daily challenges, 20,000 xp, 3 Top 5s, and 1 win with 8 kills, I have finally hit battlepass level 2."

As the above tweets show, Respawn has halved the amount of XP required per battle star, and it says that next week's challenges will require significantly less time to complete. The follow-up tweet says that the new system was an attempt by Respawn to make sure that the battle pass lasted for the entire length of the season, as well as incentivizing players to try out new Legends.

While this is certainly a possibility, some fans have already accused the studio of purposefully prolonging the new season's grind in order to encourage fans to buy battle pass levels with real money. In response, the game's director of communications and community said: "I don't know how else to respond to this other than by saying, bluntly, we aren't masters of manipulation. We actually just screwed this one up."