Fortnite, the Battle Pass trendsetter, is changing course. Does this mean the end of Battle Pass in our games?
The Battle Pass, it is impossible to imagine our favorite games without it. Popularized by Fortnite and later adopted by big games like Rocket Leaugue, Overwatch and Call of Duty. Every game does have its own variant.
Trendsetter Fortnite is radically changing course next season of their game in terms of Battle Pass. The items you can earn will no longer be exclusive. Will the Battle Pass slowly start to disappear or will we be stuck with this lucrative sales strategy for a long time to come?
How the Battle Pass took over our games
The Battle Pass, Rocket Pass, Survivor Pass or similar designation. It is the well-known pass you can buy in your games to unlock new, exclusive items and cosmetics. Generally, this pass has 100 levels and you start at the bottom to unlock new items by playing a lot.
(image: Epic Games)
It proved extremely lucrative when Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, introduced the pass in 2018 for their then-new Battle Royale. It is one of the most popular examples, but not the first version of the Battle Pass. It was used by the well-known E-sports game Dota 2 back in 2013.
Shortly after Fortnite, a lot of other games followed with their own variant. Like Rocket Leaugue or Overwatch. And no one could argue against it, because unlike the previously popular “lootboxes,” it was not gambling. Because they were only cosmetics, a stamp like “pay-to-win” was also not useful to critics.
Battle Pass is a driver of FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out, the fear that you don’t belong if you don’t participate. A social phenomenon, but because of the Battle Pass, it certainly applies in games like Fortnite. Because even though you have the Battle Pass, the unlocked cosmetics work almost like a status symbol.
When all your teammates are running around in shiny outfits and shooting with flashy weapons, that standard attire suddenly feels a whole lot worse. And companies like Epic Games know that. They make the higher levels on Battle Pass more appealing by adding flamboyant items for a reason.
(image: Epic Games)
Surprisingly, it is precisely Fortnite that is taking a different direction with the Battle Pass. Indeed, Epic Games has revealed that it is considering making the cosmetic items no longer exclusive to the Battle Pass next season. That means anyone can buy them in the Fortnite store.
What the Battle Pass change means for Fortnite
Just to be clear, the Fortnite Battle Pass is not disappearing. The items that appear on it will only start rotating over an 18-month period in the Fortnite store, where anyone can buy them. So after 1.5 years, no item will be exclusive to its Battle Pass.
Will other games follow suit? That’s still hard to say, especially with how lucrative these passes are. Even the very latest games still employ this marketing strategy. Just look at the brand new Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
(image: Activision)
Another benefit that passes like Fortnite bring is that they ensure gamers keep returning to the game. Whether that will still be the case with this radical change remains to be seen.
Estimating Battle Pass lifespan is tricky
As long as game makers continue to develop these passes for their games, they won’t just disappear from our favorite games. Some find that more annoying than others. As long as the unlocked items don’t give an advantage over non-paying gamers is completely legal.
Still, the phenomenon is reminiscent of the Loot Box hype of a few years back. Back then, almost all games had some form of loot boxes: these also contained mostly cosmetic items, but the ones you got were chance-based. Because you bought these boxes mostly with real money, it was very much like gambling.
Slowly but surely, Loot Boxes disappeared from games like Call of Duty and Overwatch. Just in time to make way for the advance of the Battle Pass. As long as people keep buying the passes, they will continue to exist. So it looks like we will still have this FOMO phenomenon in our games for the foreseeable future.
