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It’s safe to say that EA and DICE have had a rough time with Star Wars Battlefront II after it was revealed that the title was ridden with pay-to-win loot crates. While its AMA did little to quell these concerns, DICE has gone one step further, temporarily removing all microtransactions in the game.
As early as the beta, players were able to spend real-world money on premium currency known as Crystals. Unfortunately, given that the progression in Star Wars Battlefront II is housed behind its Star Card system hidden in loot boxes, this unbalanced the game, allowing those with a little more money to shed out for a quick head start.
This system has been tweaked since launch, removing the highest-tier Star Cards from the loot boxes entirely, with the company promising in its Reddit AMA that more adjustments were inbound.
Today, we turned off in-game purchases for #StarWarsBattlefrontII. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Read the full update: https://t.co/asGASaYXVp pic.twitter.com/vQSOmsWRgk
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) November 17, 2017
In a shocking turn of events, EA and DICE have since removed the microtransactions entirely, allowing loot crates to only be purchased with currency earned in-game, known as Credits. Of course, Crystals will become available again “at a later date,” but for the time being, the team is focusing on “listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning,” so as to not cause confusion or rip off those that do pay into the system.
It’s good to know that the companies “hear you loud and clear,” but it begs the question whether there is an option to fix this mess and still bring them back. More so, for some people it’s too little, too late, particularly considering fans and news outlets across the board have vilified the practice. More to the point, it is a little suspicious that this spontaneous decision comes in the wake of Star Wars Battlefront II becoming the subject of investigation, as countries study into loot crates and their relation to gambling.
KitGuru Says: Personally, moves like this do make me want to purchase an otherwise fantastic looking title, but I am still struggling with the promise of bringing such an awful system back. Has this changed your mind on buying Battlefront II?
It certainly has; basically this was precisely what we wanted to achieve by complaining and boycotting: getting EA to drop micro-transactions and let gamers enjoy the game.
Buying the game now not only acknowldedges that, but it also shows to EA that getting rid of this crap is a good step to get people to buy games. It’s an important message.
O hot damn, hats off to EA as that is a massive turnaround.
Honestly this is the only time a dev has impressed me by dropping such a shit and huge part of the game due to public backlash.
More EA BS, this is a temporary measure to get them by the review stage. Nothing stated that is anything but a very temporary move.
So now we learn that to get EA to change their ways, you need:
1) Historically large public backlash
2) Almost universal negative reviews by the largest media outlets
3) Government investigations into shit company policies
In all honesty I imagine temporarily dropping loot boxes was a deal negotiated with the Belgian government, and done to attempt to stem the pre-order cancellations.
The reviews are already in; journalists have played the game and made up their minds. Metacritic is averaging based on 31 reviews. The game is scoring 74 and with so many outlets in, not much is going to change. IGN and Gamespot haven’t been counted, but they’re at 70 and 60 respectively; loot boxes are not gonna make the difference between a 90 and a 60.
It has nothing to do with the review stage as is incredibly obvious from the fact that the review stage is virtually over and done. So yeah, BS, but not from EA.
Too little, too late, SWBF2 wont even get the sales the first got, and that was already a terrible game. Now to see how badly they screw up with Anthem …
Temporary yes, for reviews no. This is more an attempt to change the narrative and get people to buy in for the Christmas period.
Once Christmas purchases have gone out of the refund window, it’ll go P2W again.