So there’s a limited-time event going on in Apex Legends right now, which normally would be a cause of generally happy reactions. However, the good time this event might otherwise provide is being sullied by some pretty pricey item boxes that house exclusive cosmetics.
The page for this Iron Crown event talks up these Iron Crown Collection Packs, which include a set of 24 themed items that can be opened up. Here’s the rub: Buying these packs costs 700 Apex Coins — equivalent to around $7 by one player’s estimation — and the event is rewarding players with only two of these packs for free. This means if you want to get all 22 items and unlock the Boodhound’s Heirloom set (which will also cost Apex Coins), you’ll have to cough up $154.
As you can probably imagine, the Apex Legends subreddit is on fire with a number of threads and posts decrying the monetization scheme. Respawn has yet to comment on the uproar at the time of this writing.
In other Apex Legends news, apparently a number of players of the battle royale shooter and of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have been downloading what they thought was cheat software since February, but instead turned out to be information-stealing malware. The malware known as Baldr lifted a variety of sensitive details from these players including credit card information, login credentials for websites like Amazon and PayPal, and even personal identity data. While we certainly hope those distributing the software are brought to justice, we also have to smirk at the irony of the matter.
