File this one under, “Why aren’t we surprised”. It was already bad enough that EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II was already under fire for the handling of their loot boxes. But now it’s come to light that EA may have lower the amount of credits needed to acquire in-game heroes.
This information comes from a recent Star Wars Battlefront II review event. Yet, if this information is via a review event, that still qualifies as being a review copy. I mean, the purpose of a review event is for providing coverage of the said game. NOTE: We have not received confirmation from anyone reviewing the game if those amounts are still in the game. And we likely won’t due to NDA’s.
To give you an example, the review copy has Darth Vader available for unlocking at 10,000 credits. The actual game has him at 60,000 credits. This comes directly from the EA Access/EA Origin trial versions. That’s six times the amount from the review event copy.
As pointed out in a video, EA has lowered the prices to let reviewers gain access to the in-game heroes, faster. However, this is misleading as the reviewers likely aren’t aware of this as there was no mention of this. This of course was noticed once gamers had the game in their hands and realized that something was not right. Surprise, surprise, the hero unlock credits are a bit higher than those in the reviews.
Needless to say, those who are looking forward to the game aren’t too thrilled.
On that note, what reviewer would want to give a false impression of the game they’re reviewing? The same game they’re reviewing should be the same game we’re getting access to. Otherwise, it’s a lie. An unintentional one, but still a lie. If it will take someone 40+ hours to unlock a character, outside of spending actual money on them, then that should be reflected.
Over at the Star Wars Battlefront subreddit, an EA Community Team member “attempted” to downplay the issue. That attempt is now sitting at over 234,000 downvotes. Let’s just say that no one finds this reply on the matter, amusing.
The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.
If the intent was to provide a sense of pride, why is it much lower for review copies?
While EA has mentioned that they’ll evaluate the feedback and adjust the in-game economy, but this shouldn’t even be a thing. Hopefully, those who are reviewing the game will catch wind of this and will adjust their reviews accordingly.
This all stinks as I was really looking forward to playing the game. As a community, we need to let EA know that this practice is not ok. We shouldn’t accept this as being normal or acceptable. I know the whole thing about “voting with your wallet” is cliche but it definitely does apply here.
Have any thoughts about this? Let us know in the comments below.
Update: I noticed that a dev who worked on the game has mentioned that he has received some death threats. They aren’t completely related to this article, but they play hand in hand (microtransactions). This is not ok! Despite how we feel about a certain decision or feature, it’s never ok to threaten someone over it. Voicing your opinion is fine, we all should do that more. But threatening someone over it, that’s just crazy talk. Let’s all be civil here, let’s all be a bit more humane. Besides, I’m sure the devs would be inclined to care more about a civil and rational conversation, versus one that said “I’ll find you and kill you”.
Star Wars Battlefront II releases on November 17th, 2017, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
