Star Wars Battlefront 2 fans took to the internet to protest the game’s focus of unfair in-game payment, or microtransations. And it seems to be working.
Just a few days after lowering the bar for unlocking the most popular Star Wars heroes, EA has decided to suspend all in-game purchases.
In the official statement regarding this step, Oskar Gabrielson, General Manager at DICE, thanks the “devoted fans” for helping the developers to ” tune and evolve the experience”. He than continues to address the main issue – in-game purchases.
“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.
“We hear you loud and clear, so 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.”
EA isn’t outright canceling the option to purchase crystals with real money. This is only a temporary solution until they come up with one that will be more beneficial for all.
“The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we’ve made changes to the game. We’ll share more details as we work through this.”
Say what you will about EA, but at least they listen to their fan-base. Or at least Disney does. Some reports claim that EA CEO Andrew Wilson received a call from Disney consumer products and interactive media chairman Jimmy Pitaro shortly before the statement above was released.
While we can’t be sure, it is more than likely the two discussed Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and the recent fan outrage online. Disney is very good at protecting its franchises, after all.
The bottom line is, microtransactions are not going away, and will be back in Battlefront 2 in the near future. As Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad puts it:
The main takeaway from the EA statement is what I’ve always been saying.
MTX and Loot Boxes aren’t going away. They’re already accepted.
All that’s happening is EA tweaking the system to make it ‘fun and addictive’ instead of ‘intrusive and predatory’.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) November 17, 2017
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is available now, sans microtransactions, for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
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