Microtransactions return to Star Wars Battlefront II, as EA details progression system overhaul

It’s safe to say that when Star Wars Battlefront II released, EA was far, far away from pleasing everyone. Ridden with pay-to-win microtransactions, the publisher was forced to strip the premium currency from the title temporarily with a promise that they will return. After a lot of revision, EA has now outlined how it plans to re-implement microtransactions and loot crates into the game, while balancing a brand new progression system.

The progression system behind Star Wars Battlefront II was completely built around Star Cards hidden within loot boxes. This meant that, while necessary, removing microtransactions did little to quell the problem as a whole except smoothing over its debatably worst aspect. The grind still had players enraged, however, causing EA to rethink how it allows people to progress.

Battlefront 2’s Progression Update releases next week on March 21st, introducing its new Skill Point progression system. While loot boxes aren’t gone entirely, Star Cards will no longer be found inside of them.

“Instead, you’ll earn experience points for the classes, hero characters, and ships that you choose to play in multiplayer,” reads the press release. “If you earn enough experience points to gain a level for that unit, you'll receive one Skill Point that can be used to unlock or upgrade the eligible Star Card you'd like to equip.”

Crates will still be in the game, however they will only be available as a daily reward for logging in and achieving various pre-set milestones by interacting in the game. No longer can these be bought with premium currency, and they will only contain cosmetic items and the chance at Credits, Battlefront II’s in-game currency.

Microtransactions will also be present, however they will only contain cosmetics, including “new looks for your heroes and troopers.” This means that EA has double-backed on itself, as the company previously stated that it didn’t want to “violate canon” by introducing skins that weren’t true to the already-established universe of Star Wars.

Now, while there’s no mention of a pink Darth Vadar, which incidentally would make for some great humour from the studio and publisher, there has been talks of different races within different factions, such as a Rodian as a part of the Resistance.

These new skins can be bought with both Credits and with Crystals, the game’s premium paid currency. It looks like these will be chosen by the player directly rather than hidden behind a randomised system such as it would have been with loot boxes.

EA will continue to balance the game beyond the Progression Update on March 21st, tweaking things as it goes. It also hints that new modes might be on the way as it introduces “brand-new ways to play.”

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KitGuru Says: This all looks great on paper, but implementation is important. If EA makes it too much of a grind, people will remain unhappy and the publisher runs the risk of an increasingly volatile relationship with Disney due to the mistakes it’s made. Still, I really want that pink Darth Vadar to be officially made, regardless of the turnout. Are you happy with all of the proposed changes? What do you think about the new business practice?

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