[UPDATE 11/16]
Electronic Arts has confirmed they’re 100% removing all in-game microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II, following the public outcry and reports for the game being crippled by the mechanics.
“Today, we turned off in-game purchases for Star Wars Battlefront II. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow,” the company noted in a statement. It’s worth pointing out, however, that the company still intends on adding the option to buy things with crystals later.
Here’s the full message:
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.
[ORIGINAL STORY]
Following the news that Star Wars Battlefront II has some pretty shady in-game microtransactions, loot crate-mechanics, and limitations on how quickly you can unlock things in-game without real-world money, someone has calculated roughly how much time it would take to earn all the unlockable content within the game for free.
Soeren Kamper over on Swotrstrategies.com has done the math to figure out that it requires something around 3,111 loot crates, which requires 4,528 hours of gameplay to get the 155,520 crafting parts to obtain the 324 cards you can get in-game.
Furthermore, the 600 credits you get from a hero crate is worth 27% the cost of a hero crate, which is equivalent to 30 crystals. You need 248,880 crystals to open the 3,111 loot crates, so to expedite this process you can purchase 12,000 crystals for $100 – or to get the entire amount for all the content in-game you’ll need $2,100.
Star Wars Battlefront II is launching across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 17th. How do you feel about these practices with the game, and the industry moving forward? Sound off in the comments below!
Mr0303
November 15, 2017 at 12:20 pmEA is mathematically proven to be shit. In fact it is one of the axioms in gaming.
Ace
November 15, 2017 at 12:21 pmI’m assuming this is after taking into account the recent price reduction for heroes. Fuck this soulless cash grab with a rake, I’m gonna buy the original Battlefront 2 out of spite.
Takane Shijou
November 15, 2017 at 12:22 pmWell, that’s just a ‘bit’ silly, now isn’t it?
RPGEndBoss
November 15, 2017 at 12:22 pmNow matter how embarrassingly bad this all sounds, nothing will get better because the majority of consumers out there will purchase it, deal with it, and fill EA with the money their bean counters already predicted these features would get them. I’m willing to bet for every outraged gamer who won’t open their wallet, a few dozen others will.
This started with Oblivion horse armor in 2006 and that little crack in the door slowly widened until we are where we are now: A door blown off the hinges and people just shrug, accept it as standard practices, and move on.
sanic
November 15, 2017 at 12:26 pmFor every copy you don’t buy I’ll buy 2
ᕕ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕗ
sAy_YaS
November 15, 2017 at 12:28 pmEA can eat a bag of dicks.
Sir Caccola
November 15, 2017 at 12:30 pmthe website gives error 503, jeez who could be behind this. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1dc2dcd4a329b1b38c28fec5a74a71af668e6aec1ce260296c375fedc75d34c2.png
Ebicentre
November 15, 2017 at 12:30 pmAnd here I thought DOA5’s DLC was bad enough. Holy fucking shit. They know for a fact no-one is going to play their terrible fucking game for 4,500 hours; not even the average hardcore MMO players put in that many.
Brandon Orselli
November 15, 2017 at 12:31 pmIt’s getting hammered and they’re probably way beyond their server load — I verified the article is there still.
Sir Caccola
November 15, 2017 at 12:33 pmAhah I’m sure of it, it just was a perfect occasion to throw shit against EA.
Travis Touchdown
November 15, 2017 at 12:40 pmYou brought this on yourselves, fanboys. All you had to do was not buy a PS360 and just play your Wii.
You reap what you sow, as they say.
Captain Vidya
November 15, 2017 at 12:45 pmI don’t think I’ve ever spent this much on any game FRANCHISE, much less a single game. Jesus christ, that’s fucking ridiculous.
To put it in perspective, that’s over two years of working a full-time job in the states (40 hours/week).
Riosine
November 15, 2017 at 12:51 pmWhard evidence and mathematichal proof in a game article. Wooow
This empirically demonstrates that µtransaction and loot boxes slowdown gameplay by a factor of 3 orders of magnitude
NukeA6
November 15, 2017 at 1:06 pmLike Nintendo is any better with their Amiibos.
NukeA6
November 15, 2017 at 1:09 pmI wouldn’t spend even that much time on a videogame without mod support. Just more reasons why this new generation of Star Wars is absolute garbage.
kunuri
November 15, 2017 at 1:34 pmThe people complaining about the microtransactions on the subreddit are only there because they want to eat this junk food and not feel guilty. It goes without saying they value consuming this trash more than they value any form of moral consistency. And that’s just the people who even notice this to begin with. You’re absolutely right to say most people are even less intelligent and don’t even think to push back in even a token effort.
chaoguy
November 15, 2017 at 1:35 pmIt should also be noticed this is still AFTER they cut costs (and what you earn) by 75%.
Before their fanboys and shills work on trying to focus on that change:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70577e4f33104dcf995d23ce0d69290bb90a277e5c2d35ed4c12be0ad5ce2f5b.jpg
https://archive.is/Av1It
https://archive.is/F3X0v
chaoguy
November 15, 2017 at 1:35 pmALWAYS ARCHIVE!
chaoguy
November 15, 2017 at 1:36 pmMoney still goes to them since they own the Battlefront brand.
Why give modern EA money for the work others did before them?
Squirrel on crack cocaine.
November 15, 2017 at 1:37 pmAnd yet people will still lap it up. Shame that crap like this sells and yet many other amazing games get left behind.
chaoguy
November 15, 2017 at 1:38 pmDemand refunds. Keep complaining. Don’t let the story “get old”:
https://archive.is/Av1It
https://archive.is/F3X0v
Focus on how EA is still screwing people after the change.
Travis Touchdown
November 15, 2017 at 1:53 pmAmiibo are entirely optional, have a wide variety of uses, and serve a dual purpose as being collectibles.
Amiibo > Lootboxes
Eldhin Hellknight
November 15, 2017 at 1:53 pmThe guys who sell you a difficulty level as DLC? No thanks. They are becoming like the other companies little by little
Thoon Thoon
November 15, 2017 at 1:55 pmIf the game was completely and utterly free to play MAYBE this’d be acceptable. Fully completely finishing every weapon/frame in warframe the penultimate ftp under your own power would probably take as long, just, it’d also just take a week if you had real good friends who were that deep in and stuff, y’know, ways around it all.
Wanting that for a full price game is horrid.
catazxy
November 15, 2017 at 1:55 pmA free to play model in a 60$ game, fun
TheDude
November 15, 2017 at 1:56 pmAmiibo are entirely optional, have a wide variety of uses, and serve a dual purpose as being collectibles.Amiibo > Lootboxes
Ace
November 15, 2017 at 1:56 pmIs this confirmed? On the Steam page the only publishers I see listed is LucasArts/Film and Disney.
mewnani
November 15, 2017 at 1:57 pmBut both are shoddy. They’re just different types of shoddy. Also the Wii’s been discontinued for a long time, just saying.
Anonymoose
November 15, 2017 at 1:59 pmWhat I find worse of all is that in the single player campaign you get to play as the ‘bad guys’ but in the end they just join the ‘good guys’ anyway. What a load of crap.
VersVlees
November 15, 2017 at 2:10 pmThe rise of the (mobile) free to play games with their payment models gave that door a few solid kicks. All this nonsense we see now in the AAA games all comes from the mobile gaming whaling. Combine that with the success of Overwatch loot boxes and the GTA V’s shark cards and we end it with that nonsense in almost every fully priced game.
Even with all the backlash the normies and bro’s are still going to buy this game and while they might not be whales. They will spend some shekels on unlocking Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.
Madbrainbox
November 15, 2017 at 2:11 pmYou know it’s just a matter of time before this garbage gets into the Nintendo games.
Madbrainbox
November 15, 2017 at 2:16 pmWell,the more reason to support devs that aren’t putting garbage into their games.
Riosine
November 15, 2017 at 2:18 pmGames require a more scientific based review approach with gameplay progression formula; pretty much anything you can derivate out of time and with graphics (curve charts) so anyone can quickly understand the mathematical used. Much like the ones you see for computer Hardware reviews or in material science
coverage,
Unfortunately journalist of humanities do not know enough mathematics for such task, they can only write an unreplicable opinion or experiecne, and they are just a shit tier profession all around that can only copy-paste pretty.
Travis Touchdown
November 15, 2017 at 2:18 pmIt will be much more tastefully handled, won’t infest mainline entries at all, and will offer actual rewards.
Mario Odyssey doesn’t even have DLC.
VersVlees
November 15, 2017 at 2:21 pmTie Fighter a game from 1994 is probably the only example of a Star Wars where you play as a Imperial without the obligatory “gotta join the rebels because they are them good bois” story line.
They could have shown how the imperial remnant became the first order or operation Resurrection. and could have even put in a ending where a older Iden is training the first First order storm troopers.
but nope gotta make a loot box infested game where people can either cough up the imperial credits or grind that grindstone to dust.
Amethyst Eclipse
November 15, 2017 at 2:34 pmTwo different flavors of shit.
braneman
November 15, 2017 at 2:55 pmI’ve heard rumors of ex Mass Effect 2 developers talking about how one guy spend 50,000$ on loot boxes. They’re going to make their money back on this, this is the kind of thing we need to start talking to Congress about because a lot of this is blood money, gambling money that only escapes that jurisdiction through technicalities.
giygas
November 15, 2017 at 2:56 pmUpdate on the death threats, Kotaku got off their ass and did some investigative journalism. The death threats were a hoax and the twitter account was a fake.
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/930849702597316620
Eat shit, Boogie2988.
DrearierSpider
November 15, 2017 at 3:00 pmhttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcb6c241ac06865e738ebb2c70e5664999850a7408320075f04522a338ee6d98.jpg
No_Good_Names_Ever
November 15, 2017 at 3:03 pmEven in my youth where I could play games throughout the day and all night; I never gotten near half of that, even my time playing Minecraft and Terraria doesn’t even come close.
Jack Thompson
November 15, 2017 at 3:04 pmWhat if I don’t buy infinity copies? =^]
giygas
November 15, 2017 at 3:08 pmWorst Company In America Edition
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27c3b8b63603f31b7e308a4f906bf85cbc4d82afde3d46d9113c41ffa46fe6df.png
Riosine
November 15, 2017 at 3:09 pmBut then there will be 12 more people, for every one didn’t got this battlefield, that won’t be getting the next battlefield 3, And then it will collapse like ME andromeda just did
.
If anything the amount of non EA gamers been growing and accelerating over the years And There aren’t infinite casual gamerz out there for that business model to work,
Ebicentre
November 15, 2017 at 3:17 pm>”tastefully handled”
You’re cute.
Varg Wetterskog
November 15, 2017 at 3:19 pmAnd their stealing of money made by creators on Youtube. You can’t even review a Nintendo game without Nintendo wanting 40% of the ad revenue.
I will never buy a game that has microtransactions that affect gameplay. Too bad, since I was kinda looking forward to RDR2, guess I’ll spend that money elsewhere.
Doom Video Vault
November 15, 2017 at 3:47 pmElectronica Arts: The Quest For Money: A New Hope for Shareholders
BFG
November 15, 2017 at 3:50 pmWhat about those amiibos already raping you?
Travis Touchdown
November 15, 2017 at 3:51 pmStop posting, Mom.
BFG
November 15, 2017 at 4:03 pmQuick to forget FE Fates DLC, huh?
Mr0303
November 15, 2017 at 4:54 pmLol, Jason “Objectivity is a silly thing to strive for” Schreier.
Jack Thompson
November 15, 2017 at 5:01 pmSo you’re okay with having a hard difficulty in a game requiring you to purchase it? You’re okay with it being tied to limited physical products?
AnarKreig
November 15, 2017 at 5:05 pmThis is the future you chose.
NukeA6
November 15, 2017 at 6:12 pmEntirely optional? So is DLC but that doesn’t change that there is usually locked content behind them.
XimXim
November 15, 2017 at 6:28 pmAnd FE Warriors.
Made by Koei but Nintendo had to approve it.
Eldhin Hellknight
November 15, 2017 at 7:19 pmi wonder why i’m not surprised
OldPalpy
November 15, 2017 at 7:33 pmDangerous ground for Kotaku if those are fake I wonder others could be :^).
Let me guess Boogie fell for it?
braneman
November 15, 2017 at 8:45 pmBTW thought I’d mention the hashtag “DisneyGambling” has started cropping up on Twitter so people know about this, good on you guys for spreading the word about this.
giygas
November 15, 2017 at 9:17 pmhttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b239e86be8d896c6985687e005e2b749e9a793dc6f9efbb3a400046d8fd1579d.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67161a0326cf013eed6fa4c0909690fd50f08a21e1833914a8e2d0684d340a57.png
SoloDragonRider
November 15, 2017 at 9:56 pmRemember everyone. In order to fight and win against EA with their shady business decisions is DON’T BUY THE GAME! You buy the game, you let them win and this bull shit will just keep happening. If you’re one of the ones who bitches about what EA is doing and goes buy the game anyways, you are just as bad as EA.
WildGoose
November 15, 2017 at 11:09 pmIt’s true. I just preordered it two days ago. It’s gonna be gud
OldPalpy
November 15, 2017 at 11:10 pmWhat a fucking bitch, no Boogie idiots like you being gullible idiots falling for nonsense like that so you can appear virtuous are why we can’t have nice things. That third tweet in particular is embarrassing I hope it sticks to him forever.
sanic
November 15, 2017 at 11:23 pmI’ll buy 2 infinities duh.
Freeman
November 15, 2017 at 11:48 pmIf you bought a game from EA knowing it had micro-transactions then you may enjoy my lack of sympathy. Honestly, how many people need to get screwed over by this company until it’s enough?
Tomokoz
November 16, 2017 at 5:53 amI like how you like to speak doomsday, bla bla “EA will even show naked children in game if it gives them more money” but the fact of the matter is people are going to run out of money eventually, and what then? bankruptcy?
Best case scenario EA bleeds it’s customers so dry they’d have to result to pirating games for the nest 10 years, ultimate karma.
2501
November 16, 2017 at 6:15 am4,500 hours? That calculates like two and a half years depending on much you want to maintain your social life. Nobody is going to commit to this game for that long, the normies will move onto the next shitty AAA title.
Feniks
November 16, 2017 at 6:22 amThat’s not too bad. Your average Counterstrike player has clocked in a lot more.Ofcourse it is doubtful this game will still have an active community next year.
I can’t muster up enough hate to care. Its Western triple A mainstream nu Star Wars. What did you expect?
Feniks
November 16, 2017 at 6:31 amI think it was CSGO that started this. Bethesda and EA are angels compared to Valve.
And its not normalfags who pay $500 for a knife.
Ruggarell
November 16, 2017 at 6:55 amGames like this give western developers who actually make good games a bad rep. It honestly hurts because even though I prefer Japanese games, there are many fun western games this gen. For example Titanfall 2 was AMAZING simply amazing I didn’t expect it to be that good. Single player was top notch and I want a Titanfall 3
grgspunk
November 16, 2017 at 7:01 amAs much as it feels satisfying to diss EA for all this shit, you can’t blame them for thinking that doing this is acceptable. They’re just looking at trends in the greater market as a whole–Namely, they’re looking at the success of pay-to-win “games” on the mobile market, and finding ways to bring that success into the console/PC gaming market. It makes perfect business sense if you consider how stupid consumers can be.
Welcome to the era of paymium “gaming”, folks. All you fucktards that supported the mobile “games” market are to blame for this.
You reap what you sow.
Pilebunker
November 16, 2017 at 11:30 amNice. They’ve actually surpassed DOA5 and Idolmaster in terms of overall DLC/microtransactions costs. However it’s still behind Train Simulator’s 5000+ euros and Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube? Which has a 30000 euro DLC.
Captain Vidya
November 16, 2017 at 1:59 pmEspecially when the next Battlefront will come out in 2 years. Then everyone will ditch BF2 and move on to BF3.
Snorlaxation
November 16, 2017 at 3:16 pmbe fair though. how many people are going to still be following this and realizing that it was a hoax. That’s why it’s important to spread the truth around that gamers aren’t a bunch of whiny babies. look at what happened when two popular youtubers were listing actual complaints about Youtube itself, and suddenly we get articles claiming youtubers are a bunch of self entitled assholes.
OldPalpy
November 16, 2017 at 4:10 pmJournos look for any chance they get to push those narratives, then we have twofaces like Boogie here ready to act like they support us one second then throw us to the wolves to the next.
Snorlaxation
November 16, 2017 at 4:14 pmwell that’s disheartening.
UnpluggedBeta
November 16, 2017 at 9:51 pmI blame Japan and their stupid Gatcha system that makes ass tons of money.
UnpluggedBeta
November 16, 2017 at 9:52 pmThis is the future we chose.
UnpluggedBeta
November 16, 2017 at 9:54 pmYou make an excellent point; what’s even better about that game is you went full on “Dark Side” with the Emperor’s evil lightning order… and yet it still made the imperials seem like the good guys, emprah, vader, dark side, and all. because it was from their point of view.
Now that’s storytelling.
Touma
November 16, 2017 at 10:57 pmAnd so they’re backpedaling… for now. I guess there were enough people cancelling their pre-order for them to react, or who knows maybe the big honchos on Disney heard the noise and forced them to change it, either way I’m sure they’ll add the micro-transactions back in the near future, once then waters have calmed a bit.
Justin Williams
November 17, 2017 at 12:25 pmhttp://money.cnn.com/2017/11/16/technology/battlefront-ii-star-wars-game-ea-costs/index.html