The Battle Ensues for EA and Star Wars Battlefront II
In my last post I spoke about the controversy surrounding Star Wars Battlefront II. EA's influence on the game set the gaming community ablaze, and was even reported on by international news sources, not just those focused on the niche of gaming. If you missed my last article, you can catch up here.
So after all the backlash and winning the award for the most down-voted comment in Reddit history, EA instructed DICE to remove microtransactions from the game....for now. Recently, GM at Dice Oskar Gabrielson posted an update on the official Star Wars Battlefront II website, to quell fans' concerns over the game. Gabrielson said in the post:
We hear you loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases. This means that the option to buy crystals in the game is now turned off, 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.
Now to some, this was just EA saying "we'll remove microtransactions until people forgive us and buy the game and then we'll put them back in", to others it was taken with more hope and optimism. The rest of the post may give you a better idea, and that can be found here.
However, after instilling some hope in fans, it has been quashed by none other than the CFO of EA, Blake Jorgensen. Jorgensen attended a Credit Suisse conference recently, and he shed some light on just how EA plans to move forward. Jorgensen said:
We’re not giving up on the notion of MTX…We’re learning and listening to the community in terms of how best to roll that out in the future, and there’s more to come as we learn more. But I would say we’re certainly not changing our strategy. We think the strategy of deeply engaging games, keeping the community together, and allowing people to play those games with new content coming via events over time is critical to the future of our business. We feel like we’ve nailed that in the sports games, and we’ll continue to try and find the best model that works in the non-sports games.
So after apologizing to fans and swearing to listen to the community, EA have slapped fans in the face again it seems. The only positive to take from that statement is that he claims that they're learning how best to go about including microtransactions. There's one answer to that, and if you read my last post you know the answer. Purely cosmetic loot crates. Not pay-to-win. If you want to read more on Blake Jorgensen's claims, you can visit this link.
To conclude, I really can't understand why EA think they're going to get away with this. The entire gaming community is fuming, not just Star Wars fans. I'm predicting an EA boycott from dedicated gamers, but unfortunately I don't think it will be enough. EA are the king's of casual gamers, especially with their EA Sports titles. Time will tell on what will happen with Star Wars Battlefront II. Until then, I'll sit and play and dream of the game that could have been.
So after all the backlash and winning the award for the most down-voted comment in Reddit history, EA instructed DICE to remove microtransactions from the game....for now. Recently, GM at Dice Oskar Gabrielson posted an update on the official Star Wars Battlefront II website, to quell fans' concerns over the game. Gabrielson said in the post:
We hear you loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases. This means that the option to buy crystals in the game is now turned off, 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.
Now to some, this was just EA saying "we'll remove microtransactions until people forgive us and buy the game and then we'll put them back in", to others it was taken with more hope and optimism. The rest of the post may give you a better idea, and that can be found here.
However, after instilling some hope in fans, it has been quashed by none other than the CFO of EA, Blake Jorgensen. Jorgensen attended a Credit Suisse conference recently, and he shed some light on just how EA plans to move forward. Jorgensen said:
We’re not giving up on the notion of MTX…We’re learning and listening to the community in terms of how best to roll that out in the future, and there’s more to come as we learn more. But I would say we’re certainly not changing our strategy. We think the strategy of deeply engaging games, keeping the community together, and allowing people to play those games with new content coming via events over time is critical to the future of our business. We feel like we’ve nailed that in the sports games, and we’ll continue to try and find the best model that works in the non-sports games.
So after apologizing to fans and swearing to listen to the community, EA have slapped fans in the face again it seems. The only positive to take from that statement is that he claims that they're learning how best to go about including microtransactions. There's one answer to that, and if you read my last post you know the answer. Purely cosmetic loot crates. Not pay-to-win. If you want to read more on Blake Jorgensen's claims, you can visit this link.
To conclude, I really can't understand why EA think they're going to get away with this. The entire gaming community is fuming, not just Star Wars fans. I'm predicting an EA boycott from dedicated gamers, but unfortunately I don't think it will be enough. EA are the king's of casual gamers, especially with their EA Sports titles. Time will tell on what will happen with Star Wars Battlefront II. Until then, I'll sit and play and dream of the game that could have been.
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