EA Promises Changes In Response To ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Controversy

Electronic Arts has responded to the complaints of players regarding “Star Wars Battlefront II’s” 40-hour-character-unlocking controversy. The publisher has given an explanation about the controversial system and has also promised changes in light of the numerous complaints.

When one player complained on the official “Star Wars Battlefront” subreddit about having to pay $80 to unlock Darth Vader in the game, EA responded with a lengthy post that starts with a justification why it took this path for this aspect of the action shooter video game. “The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. ”

EA then explained that the cost of the characters was derived from the data they obtained from the Open Beta. “As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch.” The publisher went as far as claiming that it also considered the daily average per-player credit earn rates. EA then maintained that it will be making some adjustments just to “ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.”

On a final note, EA promised that players can expect “changes” as they continue to monitor community feedback. “We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.” The publisher said that it will be updating fans about the developments as soon and as often as possible.

Despite EA’s attempt at appeasing fans, many are still not happy with the character-unlocking system it is implementing in “Star Wars Battlefront II.” One Reddit user with the handle p4v07 slammed the publisher’s statement about giving players “a sense of pride and accomplishment” by comparing the “Battlefront II” to the “Dragon Ball” games

“Do ‘Dragon Ball’ games lock Goku and Vegeta to incentivize players? No. They may lock different alterations of those characters but Goku and Vegeta are always available from the get-go. Main characters such as Luke, Vader, Leia, Han or Palpatine are iconic to SW franchise and everyone should be able to use them for paying the initial price of your game. You may lock up Boba Fetta and similar side characters. However, blocking the main cast is a great example of how you are giving the middle finger to players,” the user wrote.

Another concerned fan with the handle CellularArrest opined: “They’ll milk it for a few weeks. They’ll let the people who have the spare income spend it. Then, they’ll say something like, ‘After listening to the community we’ve reduced … blah blah blah…’ That way they get the best of both worlds. They get the extra revenue, and they can come off like they care about the little guy.’”

The controversy surfaced when players found out that they would need to either spend a lot of time in playing the game to unlock characters, or they could purchase them using real money. During the pre-release trial period, “Star Wars Battlefront II” players learned that it would take around 40 hours of gameplay just to unlock Luke Skywalker and another 40 hours to unlock Darth Vader.

As per Kotaku, since the average multiplayer match provides players with up to 250 to 350 credits and this would require 10 to 15 minutes of play, it would take a lot of time until one could unlock all characters. For reference, Luke and Vader cost 60,000 credits each, while Leia and Chewbacca cost 40,000 credits each.

Many are mad at EA for this system, since it gives players with more than enough financial resources an advantage over those who don’t. One Reddit user (JHoNNy1OoO) complains: “This is a joke right? You can swipe your credit card for crates and just save up every single credit to unlock heroes. There is no freaking pride or sense of accomplishment in this. You’re not even doing this for ‘Free DLC.’ You’re doing this for items that come in the game we just paid $60 and $80 for. I’m sure the prices will be even more egregious when the ‘Free’ stuff comes along.”

“Star Wars Battlefront II” is scheduled for release on Nov. 17 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.