Battle pass capitalism

Abstract

This article investigates the origin, circulation and consumption of a new commodity – the “battle pass” – in the complex ludic economies of contemporary digital games. The article dives deep into the history and political economy of battle royale shooters and the game Apex Legends (2019), a free-to-play example of the genre monetized in part by a battle pass. Inspired and in dialogue with Nieborg and Poell’s (2018) theory of platformization, this article asks questions related to how digital games like this operationalize their status as ‘contingent commodities’. The article then engages in an ‘app walk-through’ ( Light et al., 2018 ) of Apex Legends, analysing its vision, operating model and governance. The focus here is on revealing the ‘mediator characteristics’ that structure in-game commodities like avatar skins, loot boxes and the battle pass. There is then a discussion and theorization of these monetization strategies and the industry-wide tendencies for consumerism they signal. A key takeaway is that digital consumption in games is at once both easy to ‘see’ but also highly abstracted, making it very difficult to pull apart what people are actually consuming when they engage with the monetization layer of contemporary digital games.

Reward Types in Popular Recreational and Educational Mobile Games

“…The rise of the "freemium" model has led to different types of rewards being applied to popular video games such as Apex's Legends (2019) and Epic's Fortnite (2017) behind various layers of monetization mechanics, such as battle passes, loot boxes and in-game currencies. These layers have been suggested to be obscuring users from seeing both how much money they are spending and what they are spending it on [27], [29]. An exploratory set of analyses of the battle pass system in the popular video game Dota 2 (2013) suggests that even though play of the battle pass has decreased, the spending on that system has increased [30].…”

The Extended Reach of Game Engine Companies: How Companies Like Epic Games and Unity Technologies Provide Platforms for Extended Reality Applications and the Metaverse

“…For long, the study of platform infrastructures and their features have played an important role in game studies (Chia et al, 2020; Montfort & Bogost, 2009; Nieborg & Poell, 2018). This includes the study of hardware as platform infrastructure (Custodio, 2020; Jones & Thiruvathukal, 2012; Maher, 2012; Montfort & Bogost, 2009), software for the development of games (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; O’Donnell, 2013; Perks, 2021; Whitson, 2018; Young, 2021), and monetization tactics within and across games (Joseph, 2021; Nieborg et al, 2020; Perks, 2021). These studies show a wide variety in the constellation of platform infrastructures (Chia et al, 2020) but clearly document the power that platform providers have in shaping the option space and incentives for developers and gamers (Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Nieborg & Poell, 2018; Whitson, 2018).…”

“…Finally, the discussion of EG’s challenge of Apple through its game store shows that platform studies should take a close look at the underlying economics of platforms (Joseph, 2021; Nieborg et al, 2020; Perks, 2021). Current debates on platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, tend to focus on the monetization of user information through ad-based business models of platforms.…”

Prevalence and Salience of Problematic Microtransactions in Top-Grossing Mobile and PC Games: A Content Analysis of User Reviews

“…A similar taxonomisation has been carried out by Windleharth & Lee [51] of 65 mobile games, who, by playing their sample identifed methods which companies use to drive engagement. More specifcally, certain mechanics have been addressed in more depth with the aim of understanding their potential for damage: for example, pay-to-win, which refers to being able to pay to gain an advantage towards proceeding in the game [30], and battle passes [22,38].…”