We’re finally entering the home straight in the lead-up to MultiVersus’ big relaunch, and developer Player First isn’t done dropping the deets just yet. In its latest blog post, the studio delves into the PS5 and Xbox game’s monetization, and beta veterans are in for a cosmetic cash-in among other rewards when they log in for the first time on May 28. However, among all of the positive changes coming with Season 1, the gating of new character Jason behind the MultiVersus battle pass’ premium tiers is contentious, to say the least.
To kick the return of MultiVersus off in the right way, Player First is offering up a seven-day reward calendar for those who complete the fighting game’s new tutorial. At the end of the calendar, you’ll not only unlock the recently announced Banana Guard, but you can also snag the Lady Banana Guard variant of the fighter. It’s good to be back.
It gets even better for returning players from MultiVersus’ open beta who have long been relishing the chance to go Super Saiyan with Shaggy once again (hi, that’s me). According to Player First, we’ll be garnished with “a special edition Snow Suit Finn commemorative character variant, a special edition Rising Stars ringout, and a special edition Banana Guard announcer pack.”
That’s not even the best part, by the way, as we’re also down to get the Season 1 premium battle pass for free, provided we log in by Tuesday, June 11. The pass itself has undergone quite the metamorphosis, and to be honest it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The biggest highlight, for me at least, is the addition of Gleamium (the game’s premium currency) to both tiers. If you have the premium pass, there’s enough Gleamium on the track to straight up buy the Season 2 pass – a system I’m glad to see pulled in from some of the other best multiplayer games like Fortnite. That being said, I’m still holding out to see how grindy the pass is going to be before declaring it a straight-up W.
Alongside the open beta’s character and battle pass tokens, Gold is now a dead currency. Fighters will instead be unlocked with a new one called, well, Fighter – one of three new in-game currencies. This can be accrued through events, new PvE mode Rifts, the battle pass, and accruing character and account mastery. Unfortunately, not every fighter can immediately be unlocked this way, as we see in the blog post that Jason Voorhees – one of two new villains coming to the game – is planted firmly on the premium reward track…
Though the changes look largely positive, the announcement that certain fighters will now be gated behind the battle pass will undoubtedly go down like an Acme-branded bomb with some players. I’ve never been a fan of gating potentially meta-defining characters behind paid tiers, despite them being unlockable further down the line – Overwatch 2, anyone? And should Jason turn out to be a top talent, new players are going to be at an immediate disadvantage when they match up against beta vets or folks who have already stumped up the cash.
As for the other two equally creatively named currencies – Perk and Prestige – it’s not hard to guess what these will be used for. Perk mastery will be reset for all players as the system itself has had an overhaul, so prepare to perk up your coffers. Prestige, meanwhile, is accrued by acquiring cosmetics. When enough Prestige is collected, you’ll be able to spend it on Prestige cosmetics, “which represent the rarest cosmetics in the game,” Player First says. Shiny.
Though there’s one big change that’s sure to leave a sour taste in the form of battle pass fighter gating, the revamped monetization system looks promising. As with the pass itself, we’re going to have to see how easy it is to gather up the co-op game’s new currencies before passing judgment, but I’m hopeful that Player First has stuck to its namesake.
For more of the latest on May’s best PS5 games and best Xbox games, check out why the Hellblade 2 reviews are all over the place for the Xbox exclusive. Meanwhile, peep why the newly-released XDefiant won’t make you pay up for Ws on PS5 and Xbox.