I posted this in the general discussion and it's my take on cross progression.
So I guess the profit numbers have been out for awhile now. Respawn grossing a billion dollars a year with Apex is pretty amazing so for that I'd like to congratulate Respawn and Apex for doing an amazing job but who are the ones spending the money and who are the ones benefitting from the changes respawn makes? I want to talk about cross progression. A serious talk, I want to see where peoples heads are at with this and if they are ok with it.
I, like many others, switched to PC but not before I paid a fair bit of money and grinded for the loot I wanted. The way I looked at it was I enjoy the game and understand it's free, so my way of supporting the game was to pay some money and in return I got a cool little thing, like a skin. The same could be said for badges people may have earned, some of which are incredible difficult. All the rumours surrounding cross progression say it will not be a merger. Not only do I think that this isn't fair but also lazy. I've recently talked with somebody that works in this field. They don't work for respawn or EA but they have a good sense as to how these things are done and know how they are done. He told me that yes it is possibly to merge accounts however the task of merging millions of accounts including accounts within accounts, for example 2 or 3 accounts on PS4 and a steam account, is a huge undertaking. Is it possibly, the short answer is yes. So If I know it can be done I guess the next question is why should it be done. The only people that this cross progression update will primarily effect are the ones who have switched. How many people did that? I don't know, but I would bet the numbers are higher that you or I would think.
I can understand that there may be or are issues in the sense that buying apex coins could result in problems with different platforms which could get very messy or even lead to legal issues, however, I don't understand how this truly factors in or is an excuse. For example although I've never played fortnite I hear there is a confusing problem when it comes to zbucks in that the zbucks do not transfer over platforms yet the skins do. I hear Warzone has done the same or something like it. Either way this may have been a lesson learned from each respective platform that this is not a way to do things but I'm still not convinced there is no solution.
Another angle to this problem that has been brought to my attention is why respawn, or more specifically EA, would give up an opportunity that allows you to pay twice for something? If you switched to PC after grinding on console, then you, me, and EA all know you are not going back to console. EA will gladly, if you are willing, take your money for the same thing you had already purchased on console. That is the part that really really bugs me. In the beginning I was more than willing to send my money to respawn because I thought this game was worth backing and still do to some degree. In return I got a cool little gift, a token of appreciation, at least that's how I looked at it. Now we see they are making a billion dollars a year. Billion. Nevertheless, to those whom are some of the most loyal fans, those who switched platforms and continued to support, those who will be the most effected, will be put in a very unfavorable position to either buy what you've already purchased or have your money essentially wasted. No explanation, no feedback, no nothing. It just sort of feels wrong. It feels like Respawn is saying shut your mouth and take what we give you. I don't remember feeling like this when I first started playing Apex. There was a lot more back and forth between the players and the developers.
We are not streamers, we are not youtubers, we are normal everyday joe's that love the game and just want our stuff that we paid for. I don't think a good answer to that is that you will still be able to access it if you play the other account. We all know we will play one main account and that is the account we want our stuff on. We've given Respawn a billion dollar a year in revenue, knowing that this can be done, shouldn't respawn be doing better. I think so. What do you think?
