Player Spending Guiding Principles for Apex Legends

Hey All,

I’m Lee – Lead Product Manager on the Apex Legends Dev Team. I’m a Pathfinder main (high fives anyone?), a Skullpiercer Wingman fanatic, and a lover of boba. I wanted to take a few moments to outline our core values when it comes to player spending within Apex Legends.

There are many different business models for free-to-play games, so we wanted to share the principles that drive our decisions around player spending in Apex Legends over the long-term.

Principle #1: Making one of the most engaging battle royales ever is what fuels us. We want our players to stick around for years, because the game will be continually growing, offering new challenges and paths to mastery. We hope at 1,000 hours in, you and your squaddies are still discovering better ways to tackle familiar situations.

Principle #2: We’re dedicated to supporting this game for years to come. We hope one day we find ourselves working on our 2027 feature roadmap! Our goal is to keep bringing you more exciting changes and gameplay evolutions.

Principle #3: No buying gameplay advantage. Period. When you enter the Ring, no player will have a gameplay advantage based on how much they spent. Your skill is the only thing that will get you to the highest levels of play.

Principle #4: Players who never spend money still have the ability to earn cosmetics. We believe players who have never spent a dime are just as important as those who do, because all players contribute to a healthy game ecosystem (squadmates to play with, opponents to gloriously execute, friends to make, community members to debate and meme with, etc).  We want to ensure every player has a chance to look swagalicious after that highlight-worthy triple kill.

Principle #5: Players have agency in choosing how to acquire cosmetics. Do you like knowing exactly what you’re going to get when you spend money? The Rotating Shop is for you. Do you prefer getting a ton of content at once, but don’t mind which character it’s for or what category type it is?  Apex Packs are for you. Want to get exclusive seasonal content through gameplay? Battle Pass is for you (coming in Season 1). Want to earn cosmetics? Score rewards as you level up.

Principle #6: Transparency. We want to openly share our philosophies, so the community  understands what drives us. In turn, we want to hear from you, and your feedback ensures Apex Legends is better tomorrow than it was today (cheesy, I know, but it’s true).

Thanks for taking the time to check out this post.  See you all in the Ring!

Have more questions about in-game spending? Check out our FAQ, or ask us on Twitter.