It's visible a million light years away: a game developer announces something that is clearly going to infuriate players, and a week or two later, in white text on a black jpg, says “Oops! Our mistake. [Apex Legends reversed the most unpopular aspect of its new battle pass mechanic announced two weeks ago today.

The change was controversial for several reasons. The first complaint was that Apex would get two smaller battle passes per season instead of one, effectively doubling the cost of the premium tier for each season. This remained the same; the second complaint was that the songs in the premium Battle Pass would no longer be available in Apex coins, the currency earned on the Battle Pass itself. Instead, a direct trade of US$10 was going to be the only way to unlock the premium tier.

Today, Respawn announced that the USD-only portion of this plan is being eliminated. Premium Battle Pass tracks will continue to be available by spending 950 Apex coins. These premium tracks contain 1,300 Apex coins, so players who have completed a Premium Battle Pass track can use their AC to unlock the next track.

The new real-money-only Battle Pass tier will be called the Ultimate tier. The base $10 Ultimate tier will instantly unlock additional Apex Packs and Crafting Metal, but will not include cosmetics not available in the regular premium tier that can be unlocked with AC. [The change to split each season into two Battle Passes was not as unanimously unpopular as the Apex Coin change: two 60-tier Battle Passes per season instead of one 110-tier Battle Pass means that players unlock almost the same number of tiers According to Respawn, seldom-equipped items will be cut, and both of the one-season Battle Passes will include one of the top tiers of the previous season's long pass. They will include the same types of high-value items (such as legendary skins) that appeared in the previous season's long pass.

In an interview with IGN, Steven Ferreira, Apex's game director, said that the change to two season passes per season was made because many players had not finished the Battle Pass for the entire season. The idea is that “you can still unlock equivalent cool content and stuff, but you can do it within 45 days,” Ferreira said.

“And at 45 days versus 90 days, the Battle Pass is faster, better paced, and gets you better engagement.

Respawn also acknowledged that a third complaint is that it appears to be tinkering with monetization rather than addressing the issues players care about.

“Cheaters, game stability, and quality of life updates are our top priorities. We need to get better, which is why we acknowledge them here.”

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Respawn promises that when Season 22 begins next month we will see “many improvements and game stability bug fixes.” These changes will be described in a patch note to be released on August 5, the day before the season begins on August 6,

and will be available on the website.