Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Changes Announced After Massive Outcry
Who says a good old fashioned public outcry can't accomplish anything anymore? Mere hours after Electronic Arts responded to outrage over Star Wars: Battlefront 2 with a Reddit post that now has the distinction of becoming the most downvoted post in Reddit history, the company has announced that it will be changing the game's progression system. While Battlefront 2 is still a long way away from what many fans would consider acceptable, these new changes are certainly a step in the right direction.
First, a refresher: over the weekend, folks on Reddit – particularly members of the Battlefront 2 subreddit – started crying foul on EA for Battlefront 2's progression system. The point of contention is the fact that many of Star Wars' famous heroes and villains aren't available to play from the get-go. Instead, players need to unlock them with credits, in-game currency earned by playing matches.
The problem is the asking price for each of these heroes. Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, for instance, cost 60,000 each to unlock. One Reddit user who is far better at math than I am figured that it would take the average Battlefront 2 player around 40 hours to earn enough credits to unlock one of those characters, assuming that they spend nothing on loot crates along the way. That, as you might guess, upset a lot of players who would rather play a video game than work a second full-time job.
Electronic Arts has just announced that those hero prices will be changed in time for launch. In response to this massive amount of criticism, all major heroes and villians will have their prices slashed by 75%. This means that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now cost 15,000 credits instead of 60,000; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia will cost 10,000; and finally, Iden will cost 5,000.
These changes are going live today, and now DICE and EA say that they're listening for more feedback. Both companies promise that more changes are coming, but it seems far too optimistic to expect that main sticking point – loot boxes – will be changed all that drastically from what we have now. On top of that, many players think that Star Wars heroes and villains should be free, rather than locked behind in-game purchases at any price, so these changes may not have the effect on consumer happiness that EA is hoping for.
In what's either the bravest or most ill-advised move we've ever seen, DICE also announced that some of the key leads on Battlefront 2 will host a Reddit AMA on Wednesday. If you have further grievances you'd like to air, then, it sounds like that's the place to do it. More information on that AMA will be coming down the pipeline shortly, but for now, head down to the comments section and let us know if this change is enough to get you to reconsider your stance on Battlefront 2.