Fall Guys Free To Play Currency System Angers Fans

Are you looking forward to the Fall Guys free-to-play transition next week? You might change your mind when you hear Mediatonic's plans for the game's new currency systems


Published: June 16, 2022 11:19 AM /

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A Fall Guys jellybean wearing a dragon costume and looking pensive

Next week, the Fall Guys free-to-play transition begins. You'll soon be able to play the game for free across all platforms, and ahead of that launch, developer Mediatonic has shared some info about how the new Fall Guys currency system will work. To put it mildly, players aren't happy.

How will the new Fall Guys free-to-play currency work?

Last month, Mediatonic announced that bouncy competitive platformer Fall Guys would go free-to-play. Now, the studio has released some more info about how in-game currency will work, and there are some pretty big changes coming. To start with, a new premium currency is being introduced in the form of Show-Bucks. You can, of course, buy Show-Bucks with real money, but there will also be a small amount available as part of the "free progression path" part of the Season Pass. Show-Bucks will be used to buy the full Fall Guys Season Pass (which instantly unlocks an Ezio costume if you buy it), as well as certain costume bundles. Mediatonic says "most items" you can buy with Show-Bucks will be Uncommon rarity or higher. It's also worth noting that if you bought the game and played it prior to the free-to-play update, you will be granted the premium Season Pass at no extra cost.

Costumes from the Fall Guys free-to-play Season Pass
If you use Show-Bucks to buy the Fall Guys free-to-play Season Pass, you'll instantly get access to an Ezio costume.

There are also changes coming to Kudos and Crowns. When you win a game in Fall Guys, you're granted a Crown, a special currency that you can then use to buy costumes and other cosmetic items. After the free-to-play update, however, Crowns will no longer be a spendable currency. Instead, they will simply earn Crown Ranks, just like they do right now, and you'll unlock new costumes as you gain Crown Ranks. Crowns are still attainable through winning, playing challenges, and engaging in limited-time modes, but you won't be able to spend them on whatever you like anymore. Any left-over Crowns will be converted to Kudos at a rate of 3000 Kudos per Crown.

After the update, you won't be able to earn Kudos simply by playing matches. Instead, you'll earn it through events, challenges, and the new Season Pass. Kudos will only get you costume pieces and colors of Common rarity, as well as nicknames and nameplates. This means that it's essentially impossible to earn anything above Common rarity without spending real money, and some players also say it diminishes the bragging-rights value of Crowns. Since Kudos can't be earned through normal gameplay anymore and it also doesn't convert to Show-Bucks, you'll have to spend cash if you want to get Fall Guys' higher-quality rewards.

It's fair to say that the changes outlined above are fairly unpopular with the Fall Guys player base. Almost every comment on the Reddit thread in which Mediatonic shared the currency announcement is negative. One player describes this as a "f- you" to players who played before the free-to-play transition, while another accuses Mediatonic of "selling out" the players and turning the game "into a money machine". Yikes. If you want to see everything that's new in the Fall Guys free-to-play ecosystem, you can check out Mediatonic's full currency announcement post here.

What is Fall Guys?

Fall Guys (or, to give it its full title, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout) is a vibrant, cartoony battle royale-style platformer. At the start of each game, 60 players are dropped into a series of chaotic, hectic platforming minigames, but only one player can emerge victorious. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout proved popular among players to the point that Epic Games purchased developer Mediatonic back in 2021, and the game has continued to receive regular content updates since its release, including PlayStation-PC crossplay (with full crossplay support on the way in the free-to-play version).

A group of jellybeans having fun in Fall Guys
Fall Guys' colorful jellybean fun will soon be accessible to everyone as the game goes free-to-play next week.

You can pick up Fall Guys right now on PC and PlayStation 4, although we wouldn't recommend you do so given that it'll be available to play for free in just five days. Hopefully, the free-to-play transition won't result in the game going down due to an influx of players like it did back when it originally launched. We'll bring you more on Fall Guys as soon as we get it.

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More Info About This Game
Learn more about Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Developer
Mediatonic
Publisher
Epic Games
Platforms
PC, PlayStation 4
Release Date
August 4, 2020 (Calendar)
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