On September 6th, Temtem, a colorful MMO in the style of Pokémon, celebrated its release. Shortly after, criticism arose regarding the game’s Battle Pass. Now the developers are addressing the situation.
What is Temtem? Temtem is a new MMO in the style of Pokémon that left Early Access on September 6th and is officially available on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series, and the Switch.
At release, some players were surprised to see that Temtem features a Battle Pass. The developers of the monster-catching game quickly faced a lot of criticism.
Community Manager Tsukki has now responded to the criticism on the official Discord server of the game.
If you want to get a better impression of what game it is, we have embedded the launch trailer of the Pokémon MMO here:
Developers Respond to Criticism of the Battle Pass
What do the developers say about the criticism? In the post on Discord, Community Manager Tsukki writes that the team is aware of how controversial the Battle Pass is and that the decision caused a lot of unrest in the community.
Tsukki then points out that the developers noticed that a call for “review bombing” took place and that the effects of it are already being felt.
Furthermore, she says that the team does not want the topic surrounding the Battle Pass to distract from the fact that 5 years of work and a lot of effort went into the project.
We know that there were calls to criticize the game, and the effects of this decision are noticeable.
This product is essentially “bombarded” with bad reviews. The goal of such an action is often to damage the sales or popularity of the affected product.
Battle Pass Aims to Help Temtem’s Longevity
Why is there a Battle Pass in Temtem? In the statement on Discord, Tsukki also addresses why there is a Battle Pass in Temtem at all. According to her, it was not added out of greed but aims to give the MMO a long life.
Our intention with monetization is not to be greedy, but rather to ensure that Temtem has a long life and is well maintained.
Furthermore, the Battle Pass contains no pay-to-win content and is purely cosmetic. Moreover, the Battle Pass includes enough units of in-game currency to obtain the next Battle Pass for free.
The same principle will also apply to future Battle Passes, allowing players to have an “endless loop of free Battle Passes”.
Our intention has always been to avoid pay-to-win and to make every premium item as optional as possible. Everything that is paid in Temtem is purely cosmetic. We have set it up so that by purchasing a Battle Pass, you receive enough currency to buy the next one for free, creating an endless loop of free Battle Passes.
Does the Battle Pass affect other content? Tsukki emphasizes in the post on Discord that the Battle Pass was created by a different team. This ensured that neither time nor resources had to be diverted from the actual development of the game.
All of this content has been created as an extra by a new team, so it has not taken any time or resources away from development.
In conclusion, Tsukki states that she understands if someone does not want to buy Temtem or support the developer studio due to the Battle Pass. However, she asks that the team or the rest of the community not be attacked or harassed over the issue.
If you want to read the original text from Tsukki in English, we have embedded a screenshot of the statement here:
Review Bombing of Temtem Evident on Steam
Are we seeing review bombing? Looking at the user reviews on Steam, we can certainly see that Temtem received negative reviews based on the Battle Pass:
- iKKI via Steam: “Battle Passes have no place in a full-price game.”
- POL1ZE1 via Steam: “Battle Pass… need I say more.”
- Apox via Steam: “The game is quite good, unfortunately they chose one of the worst payment methods with the Battle Pass.”
- EscapeDE via Steam: “Not a single game anymore without a Battle Pass. […] Bring on classic DLCs, but a Battle Pass? I’d rather go work in real life than do this virtually.”
Thus, there are indeed players who rate the game negatively on Steam and cite the Battle Pass as the reason. Considering the average rating, Temtem has definitely experienced some losses.
While the Pokémon MMO had 85% positive ratings during Early Access without a Battle Pass, in the last 30 days – which included the release and the introduction of the Battle Pass – only 58% of the reviews have been positive. We see a similar development currently with Path of Exile, where positive reviews have plummeted from a strong 87% to a disastrous 26%.
What do you think about the Battle Pass in Temtem? In your opinion, is it a reason to negatively rate the game or even to not buy it at all? What are your general thoughts on Battle Passes in games? Feel free to let us know here on MeinMMO in the comments!
If you are not one of the players who let a Battle Pass deter you and instead enjoy Temtem, you might be interested in our Tier List with the best monsters:
