EA turns off in-game purchases for Star Wars Battlefront 2 due to protests
EA and DICE have temporarily turned off in-game purchases for Star Wars: Battlefront 2, while they improve the game systems. The Force is strong with complaints.
For a while now, there has been an ongoing saga between fans of the game and developers at DICE/EA. Which was in part due to the game's in-game loot boxes, which required paying high costs to unlock items and giving unfair advantages to some players. However they have finally listened to fan feedback and temporarily disabled all in-game purchases while they look to fix the progression system. General Manager Oskar Gabrielson at DICE issued a statement, "That was never our intention, sorry, we didn't get this right."
One of the main complaints around inclusion of loot boxes and paying real money was that it would have taken players around 4,500 hours to unlock all of the heroes - or paying roughly $2100 (something that many fans have spoken out against). The way Star Wars Battlefront 2 progression works relies on Star Cards, and requires players to get new cards by crafting them or by getting them from the loot crates. Either way the developer and publisher have acknowledged their mistake and are looking to fix the progression, while turning off in-game purchases until the system has been improved.
We hear you loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases. We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning.
Crystals will be available again at a later date according to DICE, but first they need to rework the progression system so it doesn't rely too much on spending real money. More details will follow later, but you can read the statement in full from General Manager Oskar Gabrielson below.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is now available to purchase.