Respawn Entertainment has issued an apology for the way it set up the Iron Crown limited-time collection event in Apex Legends, which made loot boxes – Apex Packs – the only way to obtain certain exclusive items. Drew McCoy, Apex Legends’ project lead, wrote a blog post acknowledging the company had “missed the mark” with the event and apologised for “breaking our promise.”
“A core decision during development of Apex Legends was that we wanted to make a world class battle royale game – in quality, depth, progression, and important for today’s conversation, how we sell stuff,” McCoy wrote. “With the Iron Crown event we missed the mark when we broke our promise by making Apex Packs the only way to get what many consider to be the coolest skins we’ve released.”
The Iron Crown event received a fair amount of player backlash, particularly once it came to light that in order to even be able to buy Bloodhound’s heirloom set, you would first need to spend about £112 on Apex Packs. At that point, as Eurogamer has broken down in detail, the Bloodhound set becomes available in the store… for another 3,500 Apex Coins, or around £25.
Starting August 20, all 12 legendary items from Iron Crown will rotate through the Apex Legends store for the final week of the event. You’ll be able to purchase each for 1,800 Apex Coins, which is the normal store price for legendaries.
Here’s the schedule:
McCoy says future Apex Legends events will include more ways to earn items than simply buying Apex Packs.
McCoy went on to say the team wants to be more upfront with its players when it comes to future in-game events.
“We need to be better at letting our players know what to expect from the various event structures in Apex Legends,” he said. “Over the last six months we’ve been learning a lot about operating a live service free-to-play game, and one of the take-aways from this week (beyond what was mentioned above) is that our messaging for expectations needs to be clearer.”
The idea, he explained, is for all players to benefit when someone chooses to spend money on the game, and that they never sell any competitive advantage.
“Our goal has not been to squeeze every last dime out of our players, and we have structured the game so that all players benefit from those who choose to spend money – events like Legendary Hunt of Iron Crown exist so that we can continue to invest in creating more free content for all players,” McCoy said. “This week has been a huge learning experience for us and we’re taking the lessons forward to continue bringing the best possible experience to all of you.”