Star Wars Battlefront Drops Paid Microtransactions Following Backlash

Today sees the official release of Star Wars Battlefront 2 and EA have been fighting a battle with consumers for weeks since the Beta in October over its use of microtransactions within the game.

This was followed by a u-turn earlier in the week that saw changes to how heroes were unlocked but after a huge backlash by players and poor reviews because of the impact these transactions had, today EA have made another huge reversal in removing these paid options from the game on its launch day.

EA and GM of Dice, Oskar Gabrielson, posted this on the official blog about the situation:

Thank you to everyone in our community for being the passionate fans that you are.

 

 

Our goal has always been to create the best possible game for all of you – devoted Star Wars fans and game players alike. We’ve also had an ongoing commitment to constantly listen, tune and evolve the experience as it grows.

 

 

You’ve seen this with both the major adjustments, and polish, we have made over the past several weeks.

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.

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. 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.

We have created a game that is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Star Wars Battlefront II is three times the size of the previous game, bringing to life a brand new Star Wars story, space battles, epic new multiplayer experiences across all three Star Wars eras, with more free content to come.

 

 

We want you to enjoy it, so please keep your thoughts coming. And we will keep you updated on our progress.

Following the bad publicity by the reaction from gamers has forced EA to backtrack and I’ve seen many players cancelling their pre-orders and people deciding to skip the game, which even was worrying Wall Street as Merrill Lynch from the Bank of America said “We see recent controversies as a potential risk for unit sales vs buyside expectations.”

EA simply too the concept of microtransactions to far and tried to turn the game into a “Pay To Win” game, similar to mobile games, however when players are paying over $60 for a game upfront, many found this move a step to far.

I’ve been playing the game since last week when it was on EA Access, with my review coming over the weekend as I wanted to play through the entire single player campaign and properly test the game.

Does this move make you reconsider picking up Star Wars Battlefront 2?