EA Stock Prices Drop After 'Star Wars Battlefront 2' Loot Box Problems
It has been a tumultuous few weeks for video game giant Electronic Arts. The publisher has been the latest public enemy number one in the controversy over paid loot boxes in video games, with both Star Wars Battlefront II and Need for Speed: Payback hastily changing major gameplay systems in response to angry fans. Star Wars, in particular, has been a hot mess for EA, so much so that Disney had to step in and put an end to the game’s microtransactions.
Now that the dust has settled a bit after last week’s emotional Star Wars rollercoaster, the almighty hand of the free market has stepped in. As reported by GameSpot, EA’s stock price dropped by 2.5 percent when the market closed on Friday, the day the game came out. That sent the price down to $108.82. As of today, it is down a bit further, to $107.57.
Of course, EA is still a massive company with several enormously successful projects coming out every year, so it will not be hurting that much from this debacle, all things considered. EA’s share price is up 42 percent overall in 2017. That means any controversy around the company’s business practices is well overshadowed by the fact that people still really like buying Madden and FIFA every year.
Star Wars Battlefront II has only been out for a few days, but it has already faced enough player outrage for a lifetime. Instead of building on the first game’s massive success by adding an oft-requested single player campaign and expanding the breadth of multiplayer content, EA went a step further and couched player progression in a complex system with multiple currencies and a steep incline towards unlocking everything. That is, unless you felt like pumping money into loot boxes with random rewards.
The player reaction to this system was so overwhelmingly negative during the period when members of the press and select players had early access to the game that EA slashed prices on in-game items just a few days before removing the real-money payments altogether. For reference, all of this occurred before the game was officially, widely released on Friday.
Its official subreddit is still largely dominated by complaints about the game’s progression, as the rate of earning credits through gameplay has not been heavily adjusted in the aftermath of shutting down microtransactions. EA flatly admitted shutting down Star Wars Battlefront II’s microtransactions was a temporary measure in its initial announcement last week. The system will be turned back on at an undetermined point in the future, when the game is fixed.
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