The path to Star Wars: Battlefront 2's release has certainly not been a smooth one for Electronic Arts, who found themselves facing intense backlash over the game's use of microtransactions and loot boxes.
Since the reveal of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, EA has made it clear that they are listening to fan feedback and nothing is more evident of that than tonight's last-minute reversal on the controversial loot box system. With just hours until the game's official release, EA has temporarily turned off all in-game purchases.
"We’ve heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages. And we’ve heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn’t get this right," DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson said in a statement tonight. "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."
With this move, the option to purchase cyrstals in the game is now offline, which means all progression is now earned through gameplay. Previously, you could spend real money on loot boxes and cyrstals that allowed you to drastically improve your gear — a system often frowned upon in multiplayer games due to its "pay-to-win" nature.
EA did mention that the ability to purchase crystals in-game will return at some point, but only after they've made changes to the game. What changes they have in mind remains to be seen, but hopefully EA has received enough feedback to completely avoid this sort of debacle in the future.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is set to release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in just a few hours on November 17th.