Before cross platform: account merge?

@GH0STEDbyME

Three things.

1. it's actually not true that it would take a lot of time. Skins, achievements, etc are already held in an apex-specific profile that is agnostic of what platform you are on. It's a subsystem called Nucleus and people have mapped out its abilities a year ago already. You literally just have to let people link their console account to an origin account and then flip the switch.

2. even IF it took a considerable amount of time, i honestly don't care if "for them" the ends don't justify the means, I'm the customer, they aren't.

3. A lot of games that compete with Apex now have cross save. For example, this is literally how cross progression works on Doom Eternal, i can literally have it on Steam, use a pre-order key for the Bethesda launcher, and use the Xbox and PS4 versions of Doom 1 and 2 to get the extra skins, and all the content finds its way to the Steam version. If you link to your Bethesda account in Doom 1, 2, and 3, you get extra skins for Doom Eternal. I had to use the Bethesda preorder key because you can't buy Steam preorder keys on the after-market, and I had to use the console versions of Doom 1-3 because the Bethesda version of Doom 1 and 2 didn't work on PC for me, only on Xbox. It all worked. No one griefed me for money. In Call of Duty you get cross-save *between games* now even. Activision-Blizzard's Call of Duty.

It's literally EA that's the problem, no other games or publishers feel the need to scalp you for $1000 for the same stuff you've already spent $1000 on *in the same game*. I don't mind spending a bunch on Apex, since I like the game, but spending money again to get the exact same stuff I already have is just stupid, unfair, and not something I'm willing to abide. By trying to scalp me for $1000 Respawn are actively preventing me from spending another $1000 on actual stuff I want. It's embarrassing to watch this go on for this long and it's a shame to see that this company gets away with a practice that is this extremely anti-consumer. People look at that interview from February 2019, read what they want into it, and think, "oh yeah, some manager said nope, can't be done, well I guess that's it then! yeah!". What a joke. Hint: if you were selling stuff, and someone asked you to make it so they don't have to buy the same thing 3 times, you would have good $$$ reasons to say "nope, can't be done". "hey person who sells car tires, can you please stop slashing my tires after I take them from my old car and put them on my new car" "nope, can't be done" ... Respawn are usually the good guys when it comes to this sort of stuff, but this is just extremely out of character and very disappointing.

This whole thing will become a topic and a half now because most people will be upgrading their hardware now. Both consoles and PC are due for large generational upgrades. A lot of people will migrate from PC to console because consoles are cheaper for the same performance. A bunch of people will upgrade from console to PC because they want to get more pro. It's all going to start happening around the remainder of this year. People will go "yeah, new platform, my Apex account doesn't have the predator badge and trail I got back in Series 1, it doesn't have my one of a kind Wraith skin, I don't have my favourite R99 skin, you know what, f* it, if I'm starting from scratch I'm just gonna play Warzone / Valorant / League / Doom / Fortnite / etc". Apex will become some sort of nostalgia thing for many people, a thing they used to play, and they'll start asking people who still play why they're playing that old game. The sentiment will spread, and Apex will become the new PUBG, a ghost town that only those people play who got really stuck on it.

This is the way Apex dies a slow death, not due to bad gameplay, but due to EA's money-grabbing fever. It's ridiculous to say that even Bethesda are less of an anti-consumer money fiend than Respawn in such a large part of the business model. You know, the same Bethesda that did Fallout 76, with the canvas bag fiasco. The same Bethesda who came up with the unfair, anti-consumer Horse Armor monetization. etc. The same Activision-Blizzard behind the Blitz Chung controversy, and who added microtransactions post-launch to Crash Team Racing. They're all still better for us than Respawn? Well crap. That's veeery telling.

Hint: if you want it, start demanding it, rather than pu**yfooting around and making excuses for the company. Just demand it, and they'll buckle. "Respawn listens", isn't that the mantra? It's time to wake up from this stupor, Respawn. You have a money-addiction problem. You're a money fiend. There's no good reason for this practice at all. You're not going to earn more money this way. You're not going to cash in big. You'll just push people away when they notice this is a problem.