If you tuned into EA's recent earnings call yesterday (who am I to tell you what to do with your time), you probably noticed a lot of commotion about Apex Legends and how its new battle pass didn't really hit it out of the park.
"Apex Legends launched with significantly more new features for casual and seasoned players alike, including more modes, a new map, and new anti-cheat software," EA CEO Andrew Wilson says. "Following changes to the battle pass construct, we did not see the lift in monetization we had expected."
EA doesn't go into detail about how much money the overhauled battle pass ended up bringing in, but at the end of the day all that matters is that it didn't earn as much money as was apparently expected of it.
"Two things have become clear in the free-to-play FPS category," Wilson says. "First, in a competitive landscape where brand, a strong core player base, and high-quality mechanics matter more than ever, Apex has proven to be a compelling franchise for us and an industry stalwart. Second, to drive significant growth and re-engagement, large systematic change is required. We will continue to focus on retention and breadth of content in service of our global community as we work toward more significant, innovative changes in the future."
Understandably, many Apex Legends players aren't overjoyed to hear that "large systematic change" will be coming their way, in part because Apex Legends already got an "improved" (and very unpopular) battle pass structure in July: It introduced two 60 tier battle passes per season, essentially splitting the old 110 tier battle pass into two, and a change to the premium battle pass which meant that tracks could only be purchased with real money (this was later reversed).
"Time to recolour the recolours and do a triple split on the battle pass," one player says. "It's the perfect plan!"
But it's not all just about the battle pass, there's also the issue of a stagnating player base.
"As we look forward, we have adjusted the rest of FY '25 to reflect lower engagement than expected versus our prior guidance," executive vice president and CFO Stuart Canfield says. "As Andrew mentioned, we are committed to delivering new experiences for our players, with a continued focus on enhancing player engagement and retention."
Difficulty attracting and keeping new players does seem to be a legitimate concern.. "It's just tough to get new players in," another player says. "I couldn't get any of my friends to try more than 20 minutes because of how fast they die to high-level seasoned players."
I can speak from experience that jumping back into a game after leaving it for some time only to get trounced on by seasoned players, is not fun and does not inspire me to persevere on and get better at a game when there are so many other FPS games I'm actually good at. That may be a weak mindset to have, but I'm only human.
