The Original Iron Crown
If you’re not up to speed with the entire situation, the Iron Crown event brought with it two noteworthy things, among others. The first is the limted-time mode called Solo. As the name implies, this allows you to truly play the game alone, rather than being matched with two random people for the three-man squad format. The second, and more importantly the cause of this whole feud, are the limited time cosmetics. There are 25 items to be obtained from the event, with the main one being Raven’s Bite, a hatchet skin for Bloodhound. The problem with it is that you can only buy it after getting the other 24. There’s no way to get it earlier, or through gameplay alone. Unfortunately, It’s much the same story with the other 24 items. Only two can be obtained via gameplay, and you have to get the rest by buying the event-specific Iron Crown Packs. Each one costs about US$7 (~RM29.20)’s worth of Apex Coins, with a guarantee of no duplicates, for what it’s worth. To get everything, you’ll have to spend an equivalent of US$170 (~RM709).
The Rework
Unsurprisingly, gamers responded negatively to the event. Respawn has posted an official apology, and made changes to the way the cosmetics can be obtained. Unfortunately, the changes were not significant enough. The grand prize, Raven’s Bite, was still locked behind the other 24 items, and you still needed to pay for it.
The only difference now is that if you wanted a specific item among the 24 and didn’t want to gamble for it, you could buy them outright. That said, doing so will cost 1800 Apex Coins, or US$18 (~RM75). To make matters worse, these items will be rotated within the game’s premium store. Naturally, the Apex Legends community is taking Respawn to task over at the game’s subreddit. Sprinkled among the genuine questions and feedback were, as is the nature of the internet, name-calling, strawmanning and other sorts of vitriol. Turning the situation from bad to worse were the responses of some members of the development team.
Chief among them, no pun intended, were those by Respawn Project Lead Drew McCoy, who fought fire with fire. Bafflingly, even Respawn community manager Jay Frechette piled on the hostility against the community. A Reddit bot has compiled the comments by the developers, linked below. One in particular really stands out, and that’s McCroy’s comment about most players being “freeloaders”, or players who do not spend any real world money. It’s an odd comment to make, considering the fact that Apex Legends is, after all, a free-to-play game. It’s difficult to deny that the Iron Crown event’s monetisation is egregiously aggressive. Beyond that, the responses of the Apex Legends dev team is making this more than just an issue of monetisation. For what it’s worth, the Heirloom-rarity Raven’s Bite will, according to Kotaku, enter the regular loot pool. That said, actually getting it will be an event worthy of celebration, based on the odds of the only other Heirloom-rarity set, Wraith. (Source: EA [1], [2], Kotaku, Reddit via Forbes. Image: EA via Eurogamer)
