Stawahs

EA temporarily disables microtransations in Star Wars Battlefront II following fan backlash

EA has announced that it is temporarily removing all microtransactions from Star Wars Battlefront II in light of the harsh criticisms it has received regarding the game’s loot box system.

A statement issued by the publisher on their website thanked fans for their passion, and saw them vow to ‘spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning’. It apologised for a system that ‘potentially gives players unfair advantages’ and said that it was ‘never our intention’.

With retailers offering up to three days early access when pre-ordering, there have been a number of players who have had access to the game since 14 November, despite it officially launching worldwide today. It didn’t take long for those fans to discover that it could takes dozens of hours to unlock all of the game’s heroes — a process which takes significantly less time if you’re willing to spend money and buy loot boxes to earn credits. Indignation ensued, and EA was bombarded with accusations that players who bought loot boxes had an unfair advantage in multiplayer.

However, outrage reached boiling point on Wednesday following a reddit AMA with Battlefront II developers, which did nothing to quell the community’s anger. Many users saw the answers provided as hollow and evasive, with each post being bombarded with downvotes and sarcastic comments.

For the time being, it seems the only way to progress in Battlefront II is through gameplay. However, EA have vowed that microtransations will return in a future update, once they have made ‘changes to the game’. It is unclear the in-game purchases themselves they will be overhauled, or whether they will remain unchanged — just reintroduced once the storm dies down.

One thing is for sure though. This saga isn’t over.