Marvel Rivals developer NetEase has announced some good–and bad–news for cosmetic completionists, as the studio is considering bringing back older battle passes to the game, albeit at a higher price. The Season 0 battle pass that will be available to purchase once again starting May 15 when the Galacta’s Gift event begins, but instead of paying 490 Lattice for it, the price has now increased to 590 Lattice.
The battle pass will also be available until May 29, but once purchased, the rewards contained in it can be unlocked at your leisure. In terms of price, this works out to roughly $7 for the battle pass if you don’t have any of the premium in-game currency saved up. NetEase added that it is considering bringing older battle passes back in the future, but these will cost at least 20% more. There’ll be no free rewards in these limited-time battle passes either, as NetEase noted that access to all rewards will require the purchase of the Luxury Battle Pass.
“Future Battle Pass returns might occur, but any such plans will span at least two seasons and be priced at a minimum of 20% higher than the original seasonal rate,” the studio said in a blog post.
This follows a trend of gaming becoming more expensive lately, as a variety of factors like turbulent market conditions, the increasing cost of video game development, and US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have had a knock-on effect on the industry.
As for why digital goods like battle passes are increasing, there are multiple reasons here as well. Increasing prices on a digital product can help offset rising costs in other departments, but the simplest explanation here is that these price increases are being made simply because a developer or publisher can do it.
With the Switch 2 launching next month, we’ve seen Nintendo raise the price of several of its first-party games to $80, while Microsoft has announced price increases for its Xbox Series X|S consoles and games as well.
