in light of the recent events surrounding Apex and the huge outrage against the battle pass changes I decided to look at the evolution of cosmetics in Apex and it turns out the battle pass changes shouldn't have been a surprise respawn have been slowly Shifting the game into this negative direction for years and it all starts off in season 1 where respawn added the battle pass to the game because believe it or not for the two months before season 1 it was just called preseason and there was no battle pass and the Cosmetics were extremely basic respawn probably weren't earning a lot of money and after the first battle pass came out battle passes saw a few minor changes but never anything major until recently but we'll get on to that later after that we had season 2 which brought one of apex's biggest controversies and this controversy was based around a collection event called the iron Crown event the reason this event was very controversial is very interesting and it's because you couldn't buy any of the skins in this event directly instead you had to buy up to 24 $7 Apex packs to randomly get the item you want which was bad because it forced you to gamble for skins you want wanted and on top of that if you wanted the heirloom at the end of the event you had to buy all 24 items in the event and then after that buy the heirloom for an extra $36 on top which is just insane luckily though due to the backlash around this event respawn would never do a gambling event again where you couldn't directly purchase Apex skins and you had to randomly gamble for them through packs oh wait no respawn have started doing these exact type of events again over the last few seasons but we'll talk about them later in the meantime let's fast for forward to season 11 where apex's skin situation started to get a little dicey you see in season 11 respawn started making changes to how skins worked to make us spend more in the long run you see in season 11 respawn removed a rarity of skins called rare plus these skins were basically blue Rarity but instead of having a repeating pattern like all blue Rarity skins these days they would have a unique material texture meaning we had rare skins like this and like this and like this and so on but for some reason respawn completely removed the rare plus tier and then made all future rare plus skins epic Rarity instead so they completely killed off the rare plus Rarity this had some effects for example the starter packs went from looking like this to like this because rare skins could now only be repeating patterns onto season 12 only one season later and the changes keep getting worse this season respawn disc continued Legends editions and also removed all legends editions from the in-game store if you're not aware Legends Editions literally $20 DLC packs for Apex that came with a legend skin a matching weapon a badge a banner frame and 1,000 Apex coins so they were pretty bang for your book unfortunately though after respawn discontinued them in season 12 we only occasionally see them in the in-game store at a much worse price that must I remind you literally lies to you in the store about its original price in season 12 respawn also introduced a brand new type of cosmetic called a Prestige skin and these were a new Mythic item that you could also spend your heirm shards on unfortunately when they were announced we had really high hopes for them because in the trailer they looks like an evolving skin that would evolve in game with your kills but unfortunately when they came out and people finally got their hands on them it just turns out it was a bundle of three skins and you had to unlock some of the Skins by doing damage so you weren't actually pay in for a cool gameplay mechanic of evolving skins you were literally pay in for three skins and a status symbol and to this day I swear Prestige Skins are the biggest fumble in Apex why we don't have skins that evolve in game with damage or kills I will never know in season 13 everything seemed to continue to decline in the monetization department because respawn discontinued starter packs starter packs were basically a bundle of a rare skin and 600 Apex coins and these bundles only cost $5 which was once again very good value but unfortunately since respawn removed the rare plus tier people kind of stopped buying these bundles because the Skins decreased in quality by 10-fold so respawn had to discontinue these packs also in season 13 we saw our very last thematic event ever being the Guiden event if you're not aware thematic events were a type of event introduced in season 10 where every single skin in the event would be available to craft after the event ends meaning if you like one of the Skins you don't have to worry about it disappearing for a potentially unknown amount of time after the event finishes also all thematic event items were available in normal Apex packs as well respawn probably discontinued thematic events because there was no fomo fear of missing out people knew even after the event ended they would be able to get get any of the Skins they wanted simply by going into their skins list and crafting the Skins it didn't have the pressure of collection events where you didn't know if after the event ended these skins would ever come back to the game onto the next season which was vantages season we actually got one good change the level cap was increased from 500 to an amount you'll probably never hit and with all the new levels and Apex packs that came from leveling up now every single player was guaranteed to get a free heirloom if they grinded Apex enough which was a pretty solid chance and honestly I really needed one because with the introduction of prestige skins there was suddenly a demand for a lot more heirloom shards onto the next season which was season 15 stickers were released to the game which were honestly one of the dumbest and most underutilized Cosmetics added to the game which kind of feels like a pattern now because stickers could not be put on weapons or anything like that they could only be put on certain areas of your Shield cells and syringes which is just incredibly dumb there was way more potential with these and unfortunately they've never really hit their full potential they just feel like a weird item that was added to fill up slots in a collection of them also towards the end of season 15 respawn started testing new collection event rewards as in the celestial Sunrise collection event instead of having an heirloom or a Prestige skin at the ends we were rewarded a reactive Peacekeeper recolor which was just a straight ripoff because these things were not worth $160 like no way respawn for an heirloom and a reactive recaller had a similar value luckily though the next season season 16 respawn would apologize about this and say they're never going to do it again unfortunately it's seeming like this is going to be an empty promise once again season 16 honestly didn't have too many issues but it did have the most collection events in one season with four collection events which is pretty crazy and season 16 was honestly nonstop for Apex it felt like there was always content coming out in this season we also got our very first heirloom recaller which will be the first of many although people were actually pretty happy with these because they added new heirloom animations to the original heirloom that was getting recolored so it wasn't all bad and it just gave people a new opportunity to get another heirloom for a legend they love honestly the backlash was way less than expected but once again it was another step into the grave of respawn kind of getting lazy season 17 started looking pretty hopeful it seemed like Apex was testing new ways to give people more value for their money for example they started giving dive trails to prestige skins and also a few people day to mind battle pass changes resp were working on where you could get new tiers in your battle pass by using Legend tokens unfortunately though respawn would later scrap this idea that they were working on in season 18 which was Revenant reborn season suddenly the change to add dive trails to prestige skins started to make more sense as respawn announced they were removing Skydive trails from ranked rewards so now past this point the only way you could get Skydive Trails is by buying Prestige skins so it seems like the positive change that respa made was actually made to make them more money also in this season and this season only reor made the weird decision to move one of the reactive skins to tier 25 no idea why they did this because they never did it again I assume it was part of the battle pass changes that they clearly scrapped onto the next season though which is where the monetization really goes downhill as in season 19 we got the Final Fantasy event which seemed like a really cool event from the outside it was a cool crossover event with cool Cosmetics but on the inside it was bad first of all you could only direct purchase a few of the skins and you had to gamble for the rest which was a massive shame secondly because the Skins were a new tier called iconic they actually cost more than normal legendary skins also rusa introduced a brand new cosmetic which was a death boox skin which was just ridiculous because this death boox skin cost several hundred and they dropped Universal heirlooms which cost a hella l a lot of money and the worst part is we were mad at this event but at the time we didn't know how bad it was going to get because in the next season season 21 respawn would release The Shadow Society event which would remove all the tiny good bits from the Final Fantasy event like the ability to direct purchase select skins and make it a 100% gambling event which cost more than the iron Crown Gamblin event which caused all that controversy so many years ago respawn had truly lost its way when this event released and people started losing faith in Apex massively and somehow I do not know how it would only get worse from here because with the launch of season 21 respawn released a whole new completely useless currency which could only be used to either upgrade a cobal guitar that you first of all had to buy with heirloom shards or buy reactive skins for insane prices and at the start of the season they released a load of universal heirlooms which had the most predatory buying system ever and if that wasn't enough that respawn had supposedly scrapped heirlooms to make these things also the season dropped with another Milestone event and this time the Milestone event didn't even have a cool Universal airlo as a reward it was just a load of skins that you had to gamble for and if that somehow isn't enough predator monetization systems and currencies in Apex respawn revealed that with the launch of Season 22 they were going to be dropping a new battle pass system which split the battle pass into two battle passes per season basically charging the players twice and also remove the ability to buy the battle pass of Apex coins you can now only buy the battle pass with straight up money which is what the big Apex drama is about at the minute combined with the fact that it seems like the game is dying right now Apex is looking very Grim but when you see all the drama surrounding the battle pass don't just brush it off as people getting mad about one simple change no this has been a slow Cru of years of little changes to make us spend just that little bit more money and truly the battle pass change was the straw that broke the camels back this has made people mad and I'm glad it's getting big coverage although I fear respawn aren't going to revert this change it's been a week since they announced this battle pass change and they've said nothing about it I fear for apex's future and hopefully respawn do something right because it feels like they're only doing wrong things now 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