Over the last couple of days players have worked out that to unlock certain characters in Star Wars Battlefront II’s multiplayer, for example Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, will take around 40 hours of game time each due to the price of the characters being 60,000 credits while the rate of earning credits will be low. The game has already been criticised for the loot box approach which EA and DICE amended.
Update: EA have now slashed the pricing of all the locked hero characters in the game, effectively quartering their price. See here for the details.
Obviously a 40 hour grind to unlock iconic characters for Star Wars Battlefront II’s multiplayer has not gone down well, and it appears EA have tried to address those concerns on Reddit. The verified EA Community Team account has been responding to comments, and honestly it isn’t a pretty sight. Below are some of the comments made in a thread titled “Seriously? I paid 80$ to have Vader locked?” by the team.
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.
“Pride and accomplishment.” When I unlock or achieve something in a game I do have a bit of pride, that’s true, but by the 40 hour mark that accomplishment is usually beating a massive game. Getting all five of Nier Automata’s main route endings took 33 hours. 40 hours to unlock a single character is far from a pride thing, and can be seen as push to make people pay money for credits to unlock someone like Vader sooner.
Beta prices were lowered to allow players to experience all the Beta had to offer. Also it was a Beta/trial for us. We wanted to see how player progressed, how fast they unlocked content, etc. Beta was not a final product by any means. Like all Betas it was a learning experience in how our systems work, how players progress, etc.
If you played the beta you got an experience that was more lucrative for you when it came to earning credits, while in the final product prices for items have been hiked. Obviously EA’s community team can’t start saying that decisions were made so more people would invest in micro transactions, but it’s clear from what is happening.
Regardless of what happens Star Wars Battlefront II will likely sell very well, and the market has proved that people are willing to spend money on microtransactions. Recently though it seems that the objective to cash grab has led to much more unscrupulous undertakings than in previous years.
Source: Reddit
JR.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 AKA ‘Let’s see how far we can push these clowns before they realise they’re being ripped off’ LOL
Ade
Booooo EA. Man, I really miss unlocking characters and game content through skill, progress and hunting out secrets. The moment companies like Capcom started charging money for new characters in their fighting games, rather than having them as secret content for the player to discover, I lost all interest.
gazzagb
I think I would be OK with EA milking their cash cows for all they’re worth if it lets them invest in smaller games that have less mass appeal, but we’ve seen that they don’t care about those games either. It kinda feels like the industry is reaching a turning point.
ron_mcphatty
Yeah you’re right, it feels like a similar time to when we were all discussing the death of the disc drive last gen. Hopefully variety wins, new ideas are good as long as the old ones aren’t didtched for lack of profit.
Avenger
I’m not sure I care. Games of old have been replete with tough challenges to overcome vs common standards today where challenge is scalable or things are made so accessible for ‘balance’.
Yes, the reason EA may be doing this is to incentivise microtransactions, but really why the challenge exists is a matter of politics. I don’t mind a lofty goal to hunt for, and we still have the option to avoid paying any money, and certainly I haven’t seen heroes become OP to the point you have to pay to win or pay to keep things balanced.
I’ve been playing the game the last few days, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable. A true return to form. I’ve not felt this hyped about a Star Wars game for a while.
It will again be laughable to see people miss this, out of some stand against loot boxes or whatever.
colmshan1990
Over 100 hours of gameplay required to unlock Vader or Luke (not both!) without spending cash.
There are very, very few games I’ll ever play for 100 hours. Far too many to experience and not enough time to play them all.
Why should I or anyone else have to grind for that much time to use the iconic characters in a not very cheap game I’ve paid for?
Sure, I’m all for hidden characters and bonus unlocks. But this is ridiculous.
60,000 credits for Vader. 32,000 credits if you beat literally every challenge in the game (including the ones you need heroes like Vader and Luke for!). That’s nakedly greedy.
Nate
It’s not a tough challenge to overcome, it’s just a time sink to save enough money. More importantly, it’s an obvious hobbling of game progression to encourage microtransactions. EA is testing the waters, and if people don’t respond then this will become a more widely used practice. It’s like politics, you may not care now, but it will effect something you care about in the future!
mclarenrob2
Well I guess 40 hours it is then….
Pitcher-T
Whenever people say “but you can just earn them in game” I always respond with “yeah but that time has been deliberately extended to annoy you enough to make you tempted by the paid microtransactions”
Any game that offers items to speed up progress is fundamental flawed in my opinion.
Why don’t we just pay £5 to skip to the ending of films, save yourself an hour or two.
ron_mcphatty
I would’ve paid that for the last Transformers film.
MrYd
Are we going to have another 3/10 review score here while everyone else ignores all the shit they’re up to? Because it sounds like it’s deserving of such a score already.
And how much real money would you have to spend to save that ridiculous grind? Just wondering how much the price of the game needs to drop by before I buy it. Although I guess waiting for the price to drop and then paying full price for the game and microtransactions to get it back to the state it should be in at launch would only encourage them. They’d end up thinking “We sold X copies (at a discounted price, so we didn’t make much money) and made huge amounts from microtransactions, so let’s keep doing that”.
kjkg
I’m so torn. I want the game but think this is pretty cheap.
However I don’t think this practice will change anytime soon so should I avoid playing what could potentially be a great game just to make a (worthless?) stand?
We sometimes forget that this vocal lot are the minority still. My mates getting it, he knew nothing about this when I told him and shrugged his shoulders when I showed him.
Most people don’t care and will probably spend a bit of extra cash quite happily.
Nate
It’s a gradual culture shift, but important to stick by your morals or things would never change. An individual stand is never worthless.
Avenger
I’m probably in that group of just shrugging my shoulders. It’s two characters out of dozens of characters, and I don’t feel it impacts the game that much in the few hours I’ve played.
I’m not ignoring the principles, but if it was that bad it would sour the game and I wouldn’t be inclined to pay anything. End of the day, it’s good enough to buy, and enjoy. I’m not into the politics or business aspects of the industry, just a gamer who’ll buy the games that entertain me.
Probably the thing that most puzzles me about all of this is the sudden uproar. Loot boxes/microtransactions have been around for years now and have featured prominently in many many games. Why the uproar now, that’s a mystery, but having played Destiny 2, Forza 7 and SW:BF 2, I can say the impact is incredibly minimal.
Nate
The uproar isn’t because in this instance the impact is not minimal, it hugely affects gameplay. I’m not sure you’ve understood? The cost is for all characters, and it takes 40 hours to unlock a single character. As opposed to Destiny where it takes an hour to unlock a box that contains cosmetic items with no effect to gameplay. There’s a big difference, you are being locked out of parts of the game without either investing a ridiculous amount of time, or extra money.
Avenger
I’ve played the game, I find the impact minimal. You?
Nate
That’s fair, impact is subjective. That said, to disregard everyone else’s opinion because you don’t care is a shame.
Avenger
Err, I’m not sure I’ve disregarded everyone’s opinion have I?
Maybe I’ll have a naughty giggle at randoms saying they’ll refuse to buy the game. Yeah it’s a little patrinising of the protest to say it out loud, but I respect the point of view nonetheless.
Starman
They know this will sell so its a safe testing ground for how much they can take this piss. I’d like to get it but the sheer amount of time needed to get the abilities, characters, etc that I want is too much. I’ll give it a miss.
Erroneus
Do not buy it. Do not support EA’s intend to turn gaming into a pay2win microtransaction nightmare. Rent or buy it used, do not support them until they have fixed it. It’s right now, we as consumers vote with their wallets, or else this BS will continue on.
EA and other companies has already been trying to squeeze gamers way to much, but it’s clear they are trying to turn the dial up. The new Need for Speed is ruined by microtransactions and SW:BF2 is worse.
Do not support EA, when they treat gamers like this and warn your friends about it, so the average joe is aware how shitty SW:BF2 is right now.
Starman
Didn’t know need for speed had them too. Another game to miss, a shame as I’ve enjoyed the last few games.