Brawlhalla Battlepass
Baton Rouge LA On Thursday, Sept. 17, the fighting game Brawlhalla released their second Battle Pass for purchase to players across all platforms. Brawlhalla is a game that was developed by Blue Mammoth Games, and came out in 2016.
Brawlhalla (or Brawl as it is more generally referred to) is a 2D platform fighting game, and it follows the style of games such as the Super Smash Brothers series.
Brawlhalla is entirely free to play on all platforms, which means it has one of the largest combined audiences of any fighting game. In 2019 the game reached a total of 20 million players (according to Ubisofts’ official website, the publisher for Brawlhalla)
The implementation of a battle pass in a fighting game is fairly new, and Brawlhalla is the first fighting major game to have implemented one.
Since it is free to play, Brawlhalla’s way of making money is through the purchase of various cosmetic items such as skins for the various in-game characters, which can only be bought using premium currency that can be bought by the player.
Brawlhalla’s new Battle Pass system is a different way to generate revenue in a game. This battle pass has a paid version, which is $10, and a free version.
A battle pass is both a micro-transaction (something paid for in a game) and an incentive to play the game, like a punch card for a restaurant. A battle pass generally has between 50–100 tiers/levels for a player to unlock.
Essentially the more you play the game and complete in-game missions, the higher level the battle pass becomes, and the more rewards you will accumulate. While there is a free option, it has fewer rewards and is harder to complete due to some of the missions that heavily contribute to unlocking new tiers walled behind the gold track battle pass.
A Brawlhalla player, Jack Ryder, who has bought the battle pass, was asked about his opinion about it through the Discord app.
Ryder said “I can see why they are releasing the battle pass, since not a lot of people buy the skins nowadays, they need a new way to make money…”
Ryder has been playing since the launch of the beta and has a total time played of 581 hours.
Another player, Christopher Murnane, also started playing during the 2016 beta, and while he dropped off after a few years, has come back and started playing more.
“I do feel it’s good for the game, it’s very flashy, which I really enjoy. I wouldn’t call it a money grab, but a tactical way for people to spend their money,” he said.
While some may complain about increasing monetization, generally the Brawlhalla community on Reddit and Twitter accept that the Brawlhalla Battle Pass is an improvement to the old system of monetization and profit, and enjoy that it gives players a reason to play more of the game.
