Respawn and EA face backlash for Apex Legends’ Iron Crown loot boxes

Apex Legends’ Iron Crown update was released yesterday with lots of new cosmetic items for players to unlock. But the only way to get these new character outfits, weapon skins, and other items is by buying them with real money—much more money than most players seem to be willing to pay.

Apex uses a loot box system for players to unlock cosmetics and they can unlock new Iron Crown items through special event boxes. The major issue is that players can only get two of them for free and the boxes rewarded for leveling up are the standard ones without the Iron Crown items. After players unlock their two free boxes, they must pay about 700 Apex Coins (or $7) per box to get three Iron Crown items.

The Iron Crown collection has 24 cosmetics. Due to how the drop rates of its packs work, players must buy 22 of these boxes to complete the set if they unlock the other two for free through challenges.

Apex players massively complained about this system on the game’s official subreddit. The community endorsed several topics criticizing Respawn and EA for the event’s loot box system.

“It’s a damn shame as well because I’ve already invested A LOT of time and money in your game because I thought it was amazing and you actually deserved it,” a player wrote. “But they make a lot of money already just from normal Apex packs alone. This has taken things to a new level of scum.”

Players seemingly expected a system that’s similar to how Blizzard handles Overwatch’s event loot boxes. Whenever a new event goes live, Blizzard turns all of the loot boxes that players can earn during that period into themed ones that have high odds of awarding these new items. For instance, players who get a standard box for leveling up will get a Christmas box during the Winter Wonderland event at the end of the year. These boxes also include non-event items.

But the standard packs remain unchanged in Apex, which means the free ones that players earn through other means don’t have any Iron Crown cosmetics. That makes it impossible for someone to complete the event set without spending a lot of money.

Respawn and EA have yet to comment on players’ complaints about the Iron Crown pack system.