It wasn’t all that long ago that we at PSX Extreme talked about the future of gaming. More specifically with loot crates in Battlefront 2. Once again, EA has ruffled some feathers (quite a few this time) when it was revealed what it was going to take to get heroes in Battlefront 2. Here’s a hint: It’s wasn’t good.
People have been able to play the game early and the in-game economy is taking some heat from players. Not only are there loot boxes that can potentially give people with lots of money to blow an advantage, you may have to spend a lot extra time in the game to get anywhere.
When you play the game you earn credits that you earn in various ways which you can then use to buy characters. After running some numbers one Reddit user claimed it would take about 40 hours of game time to unlock some of the higher level characters such as Vader.
That’s just one character. I can’t imagine putting that kind of time in for just one character. Don’t get me wrong I’ve put plenty of hours in a game before but this is a bit overkill. They have since changed this to be a little more respectable (it only costs 15,000 credits instead of 60,000 credits to unlock Vader now) but they also changed some other aspects to offset the change in credits.
On top of this EA can now add having the most down-voted commented in the history of Reddit to their list of accolades. An EA representative hopped on Reddit to issue a response to the feedback. Users were not very happy to say the least and the comment received over -600,000 votes and plenty of angry comments.
This whole in game economy thing is turning into a big mess for Battlefront 2. And while I can commend EA for trying to rectify the situation by bringing the points down (more or less) and adjusting the economy, it seems like they should have seen this coming. Micro-transactions and loot boxes have been a bit of a hot topic lately within the gaming community. And then this?
With that said this type of thing might not be going anywhere anytime soon. Publishers are including these kinds of things into their games because people keep paying for it. The videogame industry is a business at the end of the day and if people keep paying publishers, they are going to keep doing these kinds of things. Even when we don’t agree with it.
While having the most hated comment on Reddit certainly sends a message, money does a lot more talking from a business stand point. Here’s something you can do besides complaining; talk with your money. Or lack thereof. Quit paying for these kinds of transactions. Cancel your pre-orders as well. Then publishers might listen. If they aren’t making money, and they also see why they aren’t, that will have an impact. It’s one of those cases where actions speak louder than words.
Unfortunately it’s going to take the majority of people to make that kind of change happen and that’s not likely in this case. Even with all the controversy (which is still getting the game publicity btw) there is still going to be some kind of in game economy included in Battlefront II that also includes being able to pay real money. Whether that ruins the game remains to be scene but EA seems to be walking on some thin ice.
