Marvel Rivals’ latest update is giving fans second chance at exclusive skins. But is it fair to longtime players?
It's been exactly one year since Marvel Rivals entered closed alpha on May 13, 2024, and to celebrate, the devs have unveiled a pretty massive change. The season zero battle pass is back for a limited time, and all other battle passes could now return, too. In the Dev Talk Vol. 14 blog, the Marvel Rivals team highlighted a few big features to celebrate the anniversary. The biggest one revolves around battle pass changes, with the season zero pass set to return from May 15 to 29, and all battle passes now potentially able to come back in the future. Screenshot by Destructoid The season zero battle pass will be discounted to 590 Lattice when it returns for the anniversary. This is a one-time deal, as the devs explained that all future battle passes that make a return will be upcharged to cost at least 20 percent more than the original. "Guess there's no such thing as exclusivity in this game," one fan said on X (formerly Twitter). This seems to be the general sentiment most players have, and it's understandable since battle passes were generally perceived to be exclusive before this change. There was never any official information about whether Marvel Rivals passes and items from them could return, but since they have only been available with the corresponding season so far, most players took this to mean they were one and done. This isn't the case, though, as it's now been confirmed that all passes can return at any point. https://twitter.com/MarvelRivals/status/1922305985575637269 Exclusivity is a tricky feature to balance. On the one hand, many players get excited by the prospect of having rare items that not everyone has access to. On the other hand, it can be frustrating to miss out on items if you weren't around when they were released. It's a problem other games deal with too, and one that comes up especially often in Fortnite. There's always going to be a lot of controversy with strong beliefs on either side, so this change is certainly a big one for Marvel Rivals and begs the question: Is it fair to longtime players? I get both sides of the argument, and that it's tough to get it right. After seeing similar issues arise in other games, I'm a fan of the Fortnite system for handling exclusivity issues, and I'm hoping that Marvel Rivals follows suit. Since many players believed the season zero battle pass was exclusive prior to the May 13 announcement, an easy fix to make this change go over better is to give OG pass owners some kind of variant. Even something as simple as an exclusive costume color variant for one of the battle pass skins would work. Screenshot by Destructoid There have been times when Fortnite has accidentally put items in the shop that were meant to be exclusive, and to fix this, they created a different variant for the OG owners. I like this fix because it feels like the perfect compromise. Everyone gets to enjoy the items while still keeping a bit of exclusivity intact, but not in a way that massively leaves out players. "You did everything right in this game until now. Why devalue your OG playerbase that's been there from the beginning by giving this to everyone now?" another fan said on X (formerly Twitter) following the announcement. I'm not strongly for or against exclusivity, but I do think the best way to handle it is simply allowing all players to get the base items and granting unique variants to OG players. Since there are lots of players who feel strongly on both sides, it's important to find a middle ground for this situation, and this seems like the best compromise for everyone involved. What do you think about the battle pass exclusivity changes, and are you hoping for any additional adjustments or fixes? The post Marvel Rivals’ latest update is giving fans second chance at exclusive skins. But is it fair to longtime players? appeared first on Destructoid.
It's been exactly one year since Marvel Rivals entered closed alpha on May 13, 2024, and to celebrate, the devs have unveiled a pretty massive change. The season zero battle pass is back for a limited time, and all other battle passes could now return, too.
In the Dev Talk Vol. 14 blog, the Marvel Rivals team highlighted a few big features to celebrate the anniversary. The biggest one revolves around battle pass changes, with the season zero pass set to return from May 15 to 29, and all battle passes now potentially able to come back in the future.
The season zero battle pass will be discounted to 590 Lattice when it returns for the anniversary. This is a one-time deal, as the devs explained that all future battle passes that make a return will be upcharged to cost at least 20 percent more than the original.
"Guess there's no such thing as exclusivity in this game," one fan said on X (formerly Twitter). This seems to be the general sentiment most players have, and it's understandable since battle passes were generally perceived to be exclusive before this change.
There was never any official information about whether Marvel Rivals passes and items from them could return, but since they have only been available with the corresponding season so far, most players took this to mean they were one and done. This isn't the case, though, as it's now been confirmed that all passes can return at any point.
Exclusivity is a tricky feature to balance. On the one hand, many players get excited by the prospect of having rare items that not everyone has access to. On the other hand, it can be frustrating to miss out on items if you weren't around when they were released. It's a problem other games deal with too, and one that comes up especially often in Fortnite.
There's always going to be a lot of controversy with strong beliefs on either side, so this change is certainly a big one for Marvel Rivals and begs the question: Is it fair to longtime players? I get both sides of the argument, and that it's tough to get it right. After seeing similar issues arise in other games, I'm a fan of the Fortnite system for handling exclusivity issues, and I'm hoping that Marvel Rivals follows suit.
Since many players believed the season zero battle pass was exclusive prior to the May 13 announcement, an easy fix to make this change go over better is to give OG pass owners some kind of variant. Even something as simple as an exclusive costume color variant for one of the battle pass skins would work.
There have been times when Fortnite has accidentally put items in the shop that were meant to be exclusive, and to fix this, they created a different variant for the OG owners. I like this fix because it feels like the perfect compromise. Everyone gets to enjoy the items while still keeping a bit of exclusivity intact, but not in a way that massively leaves out players.
"You did everything right in this game until now. Why devalue your OG playerbase that's been there from the beginning by giving this to everyone now?" another fan said on X (formerly Twitter) following the announcement.
I'm not strongly for or against exclusivity, but I do think the best way to handle it is simply allowing all players to get the base items and granting unique variants to OG players. Since there are lots of players who feel strongly on both sides, it's important to find a middle ground for this situation, and this seems like the best compromise for everyone involved.
What do you think about the battle pass exclusivity changes, and are you hoping for any additional adjustments or fixes?
The post Marvel Rivals’ latest update is giving fans second chance at exclusive skins. But is it fair to longtime players? appeared first on Destructoid.
