Apex Legends' new battle pass scheme is not working.

Respawn announced this week that Apex will get two short battle passes instead of one long battle pass per season. Whether this news is strictly a bad thing is debatable: according to Respawn, the new 60-tier half-season pass contains the same number of legendary skins as the old 110-tier pass, but with less filler.

However, the obvious bad news for players is that they can no longer save the Apex coins earned from the Battle Pass and use them to unlock the premium tier of future passes. To unlock the premium track, players must pay US$9.99 directly and cannot substitute in-game currency.

The only reasonable explanation for this change is the obvious one that someone thinks Apex can make more money this way, and the announcement's claim of adding "value" to players seems a bit patronizing. (Perhaps it is not best marketing practice to say "we are doing this to make more money," but I for one appreciate the honesty.)

Apex players are now expressing their frustration in the usual way: by posting negative Steam reviews on the game. The battle royale shooter has received over 1,300 negative reviews to date, lowering its recent review score average to "Mixed."

Many players cite cheaters, bugs, server issues, and balancing discrepancies as other complaints, citing the Battle Pass changes as the straw that broke the camel's back. One Steam reviewer writes, "With the new Battle Pass system, like most players, I'm deleting the game, goodbye."

In fact, Apex's player count has not immediately declined: the free-to-play shooter is one of the most popular games on Steam, with current concurrent player counts peaking at over 240,000. And complaints about matchmaking, cheats, bugs, and monetization decisions are not limited to Apex; all large live-service games face a combination of these criticisms.

In other words, it is more than a little premature to start declaring Apex a dead game, but this over-the-top cry is getting the message across: but this over-the-top cry is getting the message across.

It is not uncommon for publishers and developers to backtrack after an announcement to see this kind of backlash. If it does happen, the first half-season battle pass will be offered at the start of Season 22 in August.