It was only yesterday when we talked about the extent EA had gone to milk gamers of their money with Star Wars: Battlefront II, which featured not only multiple in-game currencies but loot box mechanics, unlocks, achievements and grindy gameplay. That latter part was so bad, it was calculated as likely to take tens of hours to unlock some of the game's hero characters.
Fortunately, just hours later, EA has now responded and has pledged to heavily reduce the amount it costs to unlock specific heroes. In the case of a character like Darth Vader, he'll now cost 15,000 credits to unlock, rather than 60,000. Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca and Leia will now cost 10,000, rather than 40,000 and the game's own original character, Iden Versio, will be 5,000 rather than 20,000.
"We know some of our most passionate fans, including those in our subreddit, have voiced their opinions, and we hear you," DICE executive producer John Wasilczyk said in a statement. "We’re making the changes to the credit levels for unlocking heroes and we’re going to keep making changes to improve the game experience over time. We welcome the conversation."
Those playing the Origin Access trial version will see these changes today, while those who boot up the game when it's officially released will be none the wiser.
But this is still not even remotely enough to justify this game. This doesn't remove the "purchasing" of heroes, as if that's something that exists in the Star Wars universe. It doesn't remove the loot boxes, it doesn't stop people paying to earn better weapons, or better items. It doesn't stop the game rubbing your nose in it that someone else has better perks than you.
It doesn't stop gamifying the purchasing of randomized in-game extras. If you want to try and help stop this crap, don't buy this game and certainly don't contribute to its in-game economy.