Friday, November 17th 2017
Under Fire, EA Backs Down on Star Wars Battlefront II Microtransactions
In an announcement on EA's website, Oskar Gabrielson, General Manager at DICE, came forward to respond in no uncertain terms to the issues looming over Star Wars Battlefront 2. In the post, Gabrielson vows that EA and Dice have "(...) an ongoing commitment to constantly listen, tune and evolve the experience as it grows. But as we approach the worldwide launch, it's clear that many of you feel there are still challenges in the design. We've heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages. And we've heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn't get this right."
This culminates on a decision to abandon all microtransactions as they were coded into the final version of the game, or, as Gabrielson puts it: "(...) we're turning off all in-game purchases. We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning. This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay. The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we've made changes to the game." So, it's not a total, definitive cut as it is; it's more of a "back to the drawing board" kind of approach. which only makes sense, as EA has been loud and clear in saying that they consider these microtransactions as essential components of a given games' development.The addition of a single player campaign may have quelled some of the criticism from the first Battlefront; however, uglier problems have reared their head with the latest installment's handling of microtransactions. It's not a single issue on this. On one hand, there's been considerable community backlash over the amount of money (or time, so, again, money) users would have to devote to the $60 game in order to unlock everything it has to offer - a situation which was badly handled by some EA representatives. On the other hand, EA also has to consider the announcements of investigations in regards to the game's handling of microtransactions, which, in the state they were, were being considered too close to gambling to offer comfort.
This culminates on a decision to abandon all microtransactions as they were coded into the final version of the game, or, as Gabrielson puts it: "(...) we're turning off all in-game purchases. We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning. This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay. The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we've made changes to the game." So, it's not a total, definitive cut as it is; it's more of a "back to the drawing board" kind of approach. which only makes sense, as EA has been loud and clear in saying that they consider these microtransactions as essential components of a given games' development.The addition of a single player campaign may have quelled some of the criticism from the first Battlefront; however, uglier problems have reared their head with the latest installment's handling of microtransactions. It's not a single issue on this. On one hand, there's been considerable community backlash over the amount of money (or time, so, again, money) users would have to devote to the $60 game in order to unlock everything it has to offer - a situation which was badly handled by some EA representatives. On the other hand, EA also has to consider the announcements of investigations in regards to the game's handling of microtransactions, which, in the state they were, were being considered too close to gambling to offer comfort.