EA has pulled Battlefront 2 in-game purchases – for now.
Less than 24 hours into the official launch day and EA has pulled in game purchases.
Earlier today I posted my initial impressions of Star Wars Battlefront 2. In it, I made the case that people should:
“take a breath, put the controversy aside for the moment, and consider taking a chance on what I think is going to be a pretty solid game.”
I also acknowledged I may be less concerned about the issue than other gamers.
“I do wonder though if this is more of an issue for players who fancy themselves as competitive players and who want to ‘unlock all the things‘ as quickly as possible. As a bottom of the scoreboard player, I’m accustomed to having to choose a few precious items to unlock.”
EA has now responded to the pressure of relentless negative publicity. The company has just said they will be removing in-game purchases…for now.
But as we approach the worldwide launch, it’s clear that many of you feel there are still challenges in the design. 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.
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. This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay. The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we’ve made changes to the game. We’ll share more details as we work through this.
Now that we’ve got that sorted, hopefully people can get on with talking about and enjoying the game itself.