I'm thrilled about this. Really wanted the game but didn't like the intrusiveness of the progression system. I'm glad they've shaken things up. I'll likely buy it tonight.
Watching Reddit explode over this has been hilarious. If only nerd rage could be channeled toward something that actually mattered. When I told my wife--who works in an anti-poverty advocacy group and is constantly looking for ways to get people engaged in social issues--that the most downvoted comment in Reddit history was about a videogame she just shook her head.
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Dont buy it. Buy something else, we can suggest alternatives.
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Aren't they cute when they pretend they care about the 'consumer'? You can almost see the puppy eyes asking 'Now please buy the game so our investment won't be a complete write-off?'.
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It's sad not to play a Star Wars game, now that I have a rig that somewhat runs it, but I'm tired of this Software as a Service Bullsh+t. Give me a game to play, not a pay-per-stuff-givememoremoney-givemenow-service, not a gambling machine,. If I ever want a gambling machine, I'll go to the casino.
Is it too hard to make an actual game? It is the Star Wars franchise for god's sake!
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Try the free trial for the 2015 one or burrow a copy from a friend if someone unfortunately has it if you want to play that with your new rig.
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They had a winning formula (multiplayer FPS), a huge brand (Star Wars), millions on marketing, and a community that really wanted the game but they had to be greedy... the whole thing just blew-up on their face.
In what concerns the game, this attitude changes absolutely nothing, from my point of view. They now have a PR disaster and a butchered game on their hands, which is too built around making customers pay for microtransactions that it will be near impossible to fix in the time before people move on to the next thing.
I hope they lose money and that this sends a clear message to the whole triple A industry! I don’t think they’ll learn their lesson, unfortunately.
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They have lost some stocks recently in the market so its happening, slowly but surely.
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That should be an eye opener but EA is not the only problem... they just thought they could push harder and got roasted.
Ubisoft, Warner Brothers, Activision Blizzard and Take-Two are all betting on games as a platform service for "recurrent consumer spending opportunities", as they started calling it.
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You can add CD Project Red to the list aswell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWM8x6Y6cXU
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pulls off
Pulls out [of] means to move away from something.
Puts off means to delay taking action on something.
Pulls off means to succeed in accomplishing something unexpected or under challenging circumstances.
Currently, the topic title is quite misleading. :P
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Why is everyone criticising EA? I've only ever known EA as an excellent video game company and pioneer of the early home computer games industry. EA has always had my enjoyment as their primary concern and their community involvement is phenomenal.
($5 has been deposited into your Paypal account, remember to delete this part of the message before posting it).
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Fuck EA, that's what I think. Didn't purchase any of their games since ME2 and BF3.
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And you'll probably need those micro-transactions anyways once they return, if you don't want to grind
https://www.vg247.com/2017/11/14/star-wars-battlefront-2-has-reduced-the-credits-awarded-for-finishing-the-campaign/
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The fact that it took till up to the release of the game to figure out it was a bad idea is inexcusable. Then to remove the transactions "temporarily" only after the CEO of Disney calls them on the phone about it is just adding insult to injury.
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They quadrupled the grind just before release. You know, to increase the feeling of accomplishment at whipping out your credit card.
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I suspect that the fact that the Belgian Gaming Commission started looking into it was a strong reason for EA to back out. They don't want to be in the firing line now, and if the Belgian Gaming Commission deems lootboxes gambling, then EA is in trouble, as they've had several games in the past (ME3 , ME:A; DA:I are the ones I know of) that have had lootbox mechanics. If lootboxes are deemed gambling now, without any direct changes to the law, then EA might have to pay fines for their past games (and of course remove the lootboxes). Now they probably hope that Activision and WB steps back and deals with their lootboxes...
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Speaking of Activision, they've been quite keen on dodging the Chinese law forcing them to show drop rates for items. I wonder if they want to avoid telling us something about these drop rates (like the drop rates not being the same for everyone, basing drop rates on your buying patterns, thus trying to find the optimal drop rates for anyone to make them buy as many lootboxes as possible)
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That's an interesting point regarding ActiBlizzard's extremely dodgy reluctance to disclose their drop rates in favour of re-inventing their business model in China under these rules, and I find this video "How Gambling Regulation Would Affect Video Game Loot Boxes | Feature Creep" offers some great analysis and insight. Interestingly enough, the author of that video draws a similar conclusion as the one you mention. It's pretty damning stuff.
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As interesting a development that is, I do wonder if the Belgian Gaming Commission report weighed strongly enough on EA for them to outright disable the microtransactions so abruptly. Practically speaking, these kinds of investigations usually take weeks at the earliest, although the spectre of such a thing happening did loom over the launch. I'm more inclined to buy the story that social media and Reddit outrage reaching mainstream media like CNN and CNBC (and investors/Wall Street getting nervous) was apparently enough to prompt the Walt Disney consumer products and interactive media chairman to give EA's CEO a call. Seeing Star Wars making headlines by being associated with gambling could not have sat well with Disney.
Btw, I'm guessing EA's main lootbox income is from the Battlefield games, probably their most popular titles across all platforms. Or maybe that distinction belongs to FIFA Ultimate Team which makes the company a billion dollars a year, and if this is any indication, ME3 lootcrates were nothing to scoff at either. Also let's not forget their Need for Speed titles, the newest of which is already apparently pretty obnoxious with its lootboxes, but got buried under the fuss over Batllefront 2. (Last but not least, EA has a bunch of F2P mobile games, which are, of course, teeming with lootboxes left, right and center--but nobody says anything there because mobile gaming is already a lost cause).
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Now, if people would to boikot Disney's Star Wars, this December....it would cause EA to loose their exclusivity. Mmmm, this is a difficult decision.
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I think it will be end same as it ended with paid mods. P2W will comeback to game after a while slowly. They will never give up their attempts to milk every single penny they can.
This is just PR trick. Once everyone bought game they will introduce microtransaction back.
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Slightly offtopic: Does anyone have some PC Player Count stats? I cant find anything, only this http://swbstats.com/ for Star Wars Battlefront 1.
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I don't see any for now. But you can find full matches in EU for 2-3 seconds on Galactic Assault, Starfighter Assault and Blast. It takes 1-2 minutes to get a full Heroes vs Villains tho. So I guess the player base is quite big on PC.
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EA have got to be feeling the hurt right now where it matters most: their wallet.
This morning, we learned the number of Battlefront 2 boxed copies sold at launch was down 60 per cent on 2015's Battlefront 1. Some of this difference (optimistically, perhaps as much as 30 per cent) will be made up by the move to digital downloads - but there's simply no way Battlefront 2 will have come close to matching its predecessor's sales, despite being a far bigger package.
EA stock price also fell by around 2.5% after the recent removal of the microtransactions, although that's against an overall increase of 42% for this year.
It's too early to tell and we'll have to wait how EA plays the long game with this, but I do wonder if this is something of a watershed moment for EA and microtransactions in general. At least for now.
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For now.
After a vocal and negative response from players, which included the most downvoted comment in Reddit's history, game publisher Electronic Arts and developer DICE announced that they're removing microtransactions from Star War Battlefront II. Oskar Gabrielson, general manager at the game's developer DICE, said that microtransactions will return to Battlefront II, but only after DICE has made changes to the game.
Specifically, the company is removing the ability to purchase Crystals, the in-game currency players could buy with real money to unlock new weapons, characters, and abilities. Importantly, players couldn't directly buy the items they wanted. Instead, players used Crystals to get loot boxes, which contain a random assortment of items.
Players could always unlock these items by simply playing the game, but the rate at which they could unlock them without paying real money was deemed too slow by the player community and many reviewers (including us at Motherboard).
"We hear loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases," Oskar Gabrielson, general manager at the game's developer DICE said in an announcement. "We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning. This means 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."
The change comes the night before the game's wide release on Friday, November 17, and a week-long public relations nightmare for one of the biggest games from one of the biggest game publishers in the world. Before its wide release, EA allowed members of its EA Access program to play the game early, where they got a first good look at Battlefront II's progression system.
The reaction to it was so negative that EA quickly announced it would reduce the time it takes to unlock playable heroes like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker by 75 percent. That didn't appease players, who raged on in the Battlefront subreddit and on Twitter. As the games site Gamasutra reported, the random, slot machine-like nature of the loot boxes even prompted Belgian Gaming Commission to investigate whether it qualifies as gambling.
Source
What do you think?
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