Photos courtesy of Tempo
The Bazaar, Tempo‘s flagship hero-builder autobattler, has pedaled back on some of its egregious monetization direction during its open beta launch.
The Bazaar Open Beta Launch Criticisms
Shortly after The Bazaar‘s open beta launched, loyal closed beta players were immediately blindsided by some sweeping changes to the game’s economy.
The first change was the introduction of time-gated cards, wherein players were required to purchase a paid battlepass to acquire new cards for certain heroes. Worse, players could cherry-pick if they wanted to turn these new sets on or off before the beginning of their runs, which meant that if any of the cards got nerfed, they could simply not play with the said expansion to optimize the pool.
Prior to the open beta, a free ranked run was available everyday, which was the main way to collect gems, depending on how well a player does. This featured was likewise removed and was then paywalled, which meant players needed to grind daily missions to level up the battlepass for ranked tickets.
Among many other changes, this spelled a grim future for the game; one where the wallet could be the main defining factor of a run’s outcome. The community went on an uproar with tons of negative feedback flooding Discord and the subreddit.
The Bazaar‘s New Offerings
As the new seasons arrived, the monetization of the game once again made a dramatic shift: it became so much friendlier to players.
If you were out of the loop with the recent happenings in The Bazaar, here are some of the changes that happened:
Prize Pass is Now Free
Tempo outright removed the premium option for the battlepass. Instead, all players now have access to all the loot, which contains chests and ranked tickets, alternating per level. The new cards per season are now unlocked at tiers 15 and 30. However, players may still opt to purchase levels to speed up card acquisition. Should players reach tier 60, a fancy Vanessa skin also awaits.
Previous Expansions Are Now Free
The original plan was older expansions were meant to be purchaseable via gems after the its season of introduction ended. Now, previous expansions are now available to all players, without any purchases necessary.
Expansions Can’t Be Toggled Anymore
To level the playing field, the card expansions cannot be toggled on and off anymore; barring the new expansions, players will be drafting from the same pool of cards.
Daily Free Ranked Entries Are Back
Every day, players can have a free ranked run without spending any tickets. This gives free-to-play players a guaranteed ranked run per day. Assuming an average win rate which unlocks one chest (four wins), players are able to acquire a steady source of gems. In addition to the ranked tickets from the battlepass, this should make it easier for players to purchase new heroes, expansions, or other cosmetics they wish.
As it stands, The Bazaar has definitely taken a step back from the previous changes. In addition to small rewards from ranking up, and a full-cosmetic store, there’s plenty of rewards to chase after. The game’s currently still testing out monetization models, and only time can tell if they’re planning to keep the current model for Season 3 onwards.
How do you feel about The Bazaar‘s current monetization model? How far along are you on the Season 2 Prize Pass?
For more details on The Bazaar‘s Open Beta launch, read our recap here.
