Rising to prominence in the gaming industry is the use of seasonal content within games. While it does have its benefits, the practice of seasonal content is quickly becoming toxic as it heavily incentivizes players to make additional purchases every couple of months. On one hand, seasonal content makes that game replay-able year after year. On the other hand, it preys upon players who enjoy the game but fear missing out on limited time cosmetics, items, and more. This post will discuss the pros and cons of this practice, as well as what it could mean for the future of gaming.

Seasonal content in gaming is not inherently bad, in fact, there are a few positives:

  • New features that mix up the regular gameplay
  • Keeps the current player base playing, and attracts back new and returning players
  • Potentially funds a studio/publisher to continue creating and innovating on new games

It’s what seasonal content comes with that is bad. Synonymous with season content is “Battle Pass” or something similarly named depending on the game. A battle pass is limited time reward track that encourages playing the game to get these items. Often, there are a few “free” rewards, but most of the rewards are locked behind a pay wall that requires players purchases the “premium” or “deluxe” version of the battle pass. Not only does buying a battle pass multiply the rewards that can be earned, but it also allows players to complete the reward track several times faster than a free player. So, if a deluxe player might take 20 hours to complete the battle pass, a free player likely must play 60 to 80 hours to do the same for even fewer rewards.

All of that doesn’t seem too bad until it’s put into perspective:

  1. Battle passes must be repurchased every season. On top of the price of base game, buying multiple battle passes a year adds up.
  2. They create a fear of missing out (FOMO). The nature of seasonal (limited time) content means that some things will only be available during that season. This can cause vulnerable players to feel like they need to purchase and complete the battle pass every season.
  3. Rewards become redundant quickly. Only one cosmetic can be attached to any given item at a time. Cosmetic items obtained from one battle pass are often replaced by a new one in the very next battle pass, making the previous one useless.
  4. Games with battle passes often stop innovating. While the extra revenue of season after season of battle passes could spur innovation, it can also have opposite effect. Some companies don’t want to innovate for fear of messing with their current formula for success.
  5. Other games feel forced to make their own seasonal content to compete. If battle passes were isolated to a few games, it wouldn’t be an issue. However, more games than ever are making their games have seasonal content and battle passes. Year after year, more games that have never had seasonal content hop of this bandwagon.

To shed light on this subject, the popular new game, Battlefield 6, will be used as a prime example of seasonal content and how it has taken over as an industry practice. The Battlefield franchise has released dozens of games over the past three decades, and Battlefield 6 is its newest masterpiece. The games were straight forward and fun – purchasing the game allowed players to earn all the rewards through challenges that were not limited by time. None of the Battlefield games have ever had seasonal content, until now. Battlefield 6 released its first season of content only four weeks after the initial launch of the game. Of course, a large battle pass reward track is included.

Battlefield 6 could be first domino in a long line of other games that feel forced into this increasingly more toxic seasonal content and battle pass practice. Long story short, seasonal content and battle passes are used to maximize revenue for gaming companies, often at the expense of the players’ experience.