Just before Gameloft's fantasy racer speeds into its seventh season, it has been announced that Disney Speedstorm's premium season pass will soon be available by "direct purchase" only and not redeemed with the earnable in-game currency.
To be clear, this mixes things up from what players have experienced up until this point. In the game's opening six seasons, a paid season pass ('Golden Pass') has always been an option and those wishing to upgrade from the free track to the premium version have been able to cash in their in-game currency ('Tokens') to get involved.
However, as flagged in the latest Speedstorm "Pit Stop" community post, all this is set to change. According to the post, those wishing to race with the Premium Pass will now have to pay $9.99 / €9.99 (or your regional equivalent) in real money to get involved. 'Golden Pass Bundles' will also be available for $19.99 / €19.99 which allow you to skip the pass' first 15 tiers.
Those who purchased the Founder's Pack in early access will still be able to use their Gold Pass Credits to unlock the premium content, should they have any remaining.
For a comprehensive rundown of the changes, we'd recommend reading the full blog post, though the message also contains a summary of what's in store, which you can find below:
- Seasons will now be split into 2 parts of approximately 1 month.
- Each part will contain 4-5 Season Tour Chapters.
- Each part will have a free Golden Pass track which means there’s now 100 tiers of rewards to earn for free.
- Tiers will now require 1000 XP to complete, a 50% drop, making rewards quicker to earn.
- Each part will have a premium Golden Pass for $9.99/€9.99 or equivalent in local currency.
- Each part will have a premium Golden Pass Bundle for $19.99/€19.99 or equivalent in local currency that includes 15 tier skips.
- Golden Passes will no longer be purchasable with Tokens, only as a direct purchase.
- Golden Pass Credits can still be used to unlock the premium Golden Pass.
Add to this the reveal of a new single-player Tournaments Mode which will offer only four free attempts a day before asking you to cough up $7.99 / €7.99 for unlimited tickets via the 'Vault Pass,' and we are looking at a game which was previously free to play now requiring the best part of $30 per season just to get all of the rewards and unlocks.
Understandably, many players are upset at the news, with fans on Twitter describing the changes as "terrible" after saving up their Tokens to purchase future Gold Passes:
We will have to wait and see whether Gameloft takes any of this criticism on board and rolls back some of the changes in the future. Honestly, we think it's unlikely. If you're after all of the Speedstorm unlocks, best get counting your pennies.