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Star Wars Battlefront II – What went wrong?

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Star Wars BF2 (1) (2)

2015’s Star Wars Battlefront was alright. It looked good, and while the focus may have strictly been on multiplayer, it still had a perfect foundation to build on. After all, it’s impossible to make a bad Star Wars game, right? PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE PSX COPY OF MASTERS OF TERAS KASI THAT I JUST HID!

Anyway, Star Wars Battlefront II showed promise. It had a single-player campaign, it looked like EA had been paying attention to criticism from the first game and the amazing visuals had been even further refined. What the hell went wrong then? What happened between Battlefront games, that resulted in the sequel being universally slammed and outnumbered by sales of the original game in launch week?

As usual, it came down to one simple factor: Greed. Here’s a breakdown on how Battlefront II shot itself in the foot.

Star Wars BF2 (1)

Between a strong showing at E3 and its eventual release in November, there was also a growing discontent amongst gamers, as more and more games began adding insidious microtransactions inside the products that were being sold for a hefty retail price. While Middle Earth: Shadow of War picked up plenty of flack for its loot boxes, NBA 2K18 was slammed for its absurd amount of microtransactions that attempted to influence fans to pay to win.

Not paying attention to mounting fan outrage, Star Wars Battlefront II launched a beta in October that saw many a red flag raised. Anyone with a credit card could purchase a significant advantage on their opponents, thanks to Star Cards which ranged from common to epic. EA did say that some changes would be made in response to this growing criticism, but the November 9 release painted a different picture for Battlefront II.

As fans expected, these fully armed and operation loot boxes could indeed be purchased with real cash, while actually earning a hero was an arduous and time-consuming process thanks to these icons costing an absolutely silly amount of credits to earn. Reddit players worked out that it would take an entire two days worth of grinding just to unlock one hero. Ridiculous stuff.

Star Wars BF2 (2)

To make matters worse, players could only earn a set amount of credits every day, leading to a fan revolt over the stupid progression system within Battlefront II that encouraged glorified gambling for the random contents of loot crates. By November 17, EA had removed all of these microtransactions, but only temporarily, while also lowering the cost of heres.

According to some sources, Disney applied pressure to EA to remove those microtransactions, as the house of mouse was none too happy with the PR disaster that was unfolding a month before Star Wars: The Last Jedi was meant to hit movie screens. Right now, the entire Battlefront II saga is still unfolding, as EA scrambles to win back fans.

Star Wars BF2 (2) (2)

Last Updated: November 23, 2017

21 Comments

  1. grEAd, pure and simple

    Reply

  2. Neji

    November 23, 2017 at 14:42

    I believe that no matter how far back EA rolls micro transactions, even if to the point that it gets removed altogether in a patch, gamers should just boycott the game altogether.

    Its about sending a message to the publishers; and that message is “STAHP doing this!”

    Reply

    • For the Emperor!

      November 23, 2017 at 14:46

      I can imagine if they made a new Command & Conquer, a normal user would be able to harvest 500 Tiberium, while someone who bought Digital Deluxe edition would be able to harvest 1000 at a time! 🙁

      Reply

      • Neji

        November 23, 2017 at 14:55

        Well there was that money grab with Command and Conquer: Generals 2…

        Reply

  3. konfab

    November 23, 2017 at 14:46

    I am just going to look at this from a pure economics point of view.
    Making a game as technically beautiful as Battlefront 1/2 is going to be expensive. The chances are that the first Battlefront already pushed that R900 budget to its max.

    Then everyone moaned on about how it didn’t have single player. So EA decides to spend money on single player and lo and behold, the price of the game effectively goes up. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who understands basic economics.

    The responsible thing EA should have done IMO is create two seperate games. Two full games, both with no pay-to-win.

    Reply

    • ReverendFunk

      November 23, 2017 at 16:34

      They get more than enough money from the purchase price, it has been proven over and over.

      PLUS they didn’t have to spend a cent on marketing, it’s a damn Star Wars game…

      Reply

  4. Original Heretic

    November 23, 2017 at 15:07

    What went wrong? EA, EA went wrong.
    As soon as you have people who don’t play games for fun, who only look at gaming from the perspective of “how can we make more money from our consumers?”, the whole industry started spiraling into a moerse huge Scylla and Charybdis whirlpool.

    When developers who love gaming make a game, they do so with passion and a great deal of care. They WANT people to enjoy it, to know that their hundreds and thousands of hours spent working to make the game as awesome as possible is well received and appreciated.
    Then come the suits, they see opportunity to make more money and they implement shit that just pisses off EVERYONE,

    You know who I feel the most for? The poor, lowly, floor-level developers at EA who poured their hearts and souls into this game. Guaranteed, they love Star Wars and they hate what’s happening. How much hate are they now facing?

    Reply

    • elwyn5150

      December 1, 2017 at 07:12

      “the whole industry started spiraling into a moerse huge Scylla and Charybdis whirlpool.”

      Don’t generalize the whole industry based upon a single organisation.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        December 1, 2017 at 08:03

        Loot boxes and microtransactions are not exclusive to EA. It’s something that many companies are adopting.
        If there hadn’t been such an uproar over BF2, other companies would have taken notice and started incorporating it into all their games as well.

        Reply

        • elwyn5150

          December 1, 2017 at 08:13

          All that is true but “many companies” does not equal the “whole industry”.

          Reply

          • Original Heretic

            December 1, 2017 at 08:47

            You really think that a standard model of incorporating MT’s, one that will be used by the majority of companies, won’t affect the whole industry?

          • elwyn5150

            December 1, 2017 at 09:01

            I don’t think every company is full of immoral greedy corporate arseholes.

            The industry has existed for over 30 years before the emergence of microtransactions. For 30 years, gaming companies mostly managed their expenditure and profits without such things.

          • Original Heretic

            December 1, 2017 at 09:07

            By your reasoning, the industry is the same now as it was 30 years ago.
            And no, not every company is greedy (CDPR being the perfect example).
            But as gaming gets bigger, corporate greed will take over in many companies. As it already has in EA.
            The EA debacle has ALREADY affected the entire gaming industry.

          • elwyn5150

            December 1, 2017 at 09:14

            Again, you are misconstruing things.
            I never said the industry was the same now as it was 30 years ago.

            So how has EA affected CDPR? How has EA affected various independent non-AAA developers such as PixelJunk? If not, that’s not “the entire gaming industry”.

  5. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 23, 2017 at 15:25

    Think the execs at EA were so wrapped up in what they wanted from the game that they ignored a crucial component in their sales plan – what their potential customers would like.

    Reply

  6. BakedBagel

    November 23, 2017 at 15:33

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