We’re all familiar with the Battle Pass concept, but EA is changing it up with a new patent. Every multiplayer game seems to have one, from CoD to Smite. Especially if it’s a free-to-play game, it will have at least one Battle Pass. You have a free track and a paid track normally, and it’s typically 50-100 levels, with cosmetics, in-game currency, stuff like that. It sounds like EA wants to make the Battle Pass something new for their games, thanks to this recent patent. We’d see it along with Battlefield and Apex Legends, at the very least. So what can we expect from EA this time?

That’s a very clunky name, to be honest. The Season Reward Distribution System is supposed to be a unique way to offer a non-linear progression path. It leads the EA games away from the traditional Battle Pass with this new patent. This system would let players choose how they want to progress. The idea is that it would have a “reward map”, to offer paths to items. This is a great idea in theory. 

This is a brilliant idea, in that not everyone wants every item in a Season Pass. Let’s say, you’re more into weapon skins or character skins. You can look at the map of unlockables, and figure out which way you need to go to get what you want. The players can pick the reward nodes they want, instead of just waiting to go over and over down a pre-determined path.

The patent goes into a bit of detail as to what players could expect:

“The virtual map can provide a visual representation of a non-linear pathway or tracks that a user can follow based on how the user would like to proceed and what types of rewards the user prefers to unlock. The reward map provides a series of reward nodes connected by links, resulting in a plurality of pathways or tracks that a user can select during advancement within the video game.”

 There are also mentions of multiple tiers for this battle pass system within the patent, which isn’t a shock. It sounds to us like it’s a board game of cosmetic unlocks. The idea that players would have more freedom in what they are unlocking in a battle pass would be amazing, especially if it’s patented to only EA games. Other game devs would be kicking themselves for not thinking of it first. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through a Battle Pass and groaned at how much work I have to do just to get an item. This would make players in theory, exceptionally happy. We’ll just have to see when or if it gets verified, and how they use it.