Star Wars Battlefront II hero prices reduced by 75 per cent

[HEXUS]

The change means unlocking heroes will be more accessible for all players.

Read more.

[Spud1]

Battlefront 2 really divides my opinion at the moment and is a near perfect case in point for the whole micro transaction issue.

The chief problems it has being:

1) Cost of unlocks is high relative to the rate you can earn in-game currency. The cut in hero rates really helps, but its still going to take you 10 hours of gameplay without unlocking anything else to get just 1 of the locked heroes.
2) The rate you earn credits is based purely on time spent in game, and has no relation to your in-game performance. There are "challenges" that can supplement this to some degree, but they are almost all "get X number of kills with Y" and reward tiny numbers of credits. EA have stated they intend to change this so that your reward is partly performance base, but no indication of timescales for it. To give an indication, the cheapest loot crate is 2400 credits and the most you can currently earn per match (based on a 20 minute, 40 player galactic assault that runs to the end where defenders win with a bit of overtime), is 480 credits. More typically you'll get 200-300 per match. You get the same regardless of whether you are top of the leaderboard and MVP, or have sat AFK for the whole match.
3) It's partly "pay to win". Now in truth, the P2W elements of this game are nowhere near as dramatic as many people make out (especially reddit!) as the impact of an unlocked upgrades is actually pretty small and typically has a negative impact somewhere else. An often used example is the fact that the upgraded "heavy" weapon you unlock for free when you pre order has double the damage of the standard weapon. Thats true, but it also has a lower fire rate requiring you to be much more accurate depending on what you are shooting at. The "star cards" do have a greater effect though and they are a problem.

The thing is though, the game itself is really, really fun. The gunplay is pretty good and a huge improvement over the 2015 battlefront, the maps are mostly well thought out (with a couple of exceptions) and the starfighter handling is the best i've seen since X-Wing back in the 90s. The graphics are excellent and the whole game is dripping in fan service.

Ultimately I enjoy the game enough to just ignore the micro transaction element and get on with having a good time, but EA have really shot themselves in the foot with this one. For me personally, just fixing point 2 above (credit earning rate) would solve it enough that i'd be happy - but for many others its too late.

[ksdp37]

EA, bunch of money grabbing crooks. Gone are the days where you just paid a flat rate to purchase the game and got the entire package.

Nowadays, pay a full amount for half a game, pay some more for the remaining half via DLC and then pay more for in game unlockable content.

Like my Android games on PC this is becoming....

[Moogly]

Just in case anyone thought EA suddenly grew a moral compass, they have removed the refund button from their customer portal. You now have to call customer support to cancel your pre-order.

[daddacool]

First they asset stripped our games to charge us for DLC and we did not speak out because we enjoyed the multi player more.

Then they brought microtransactions into full priced titles and we did not speak out because we could short cut the challenge of playing for a couple of quid....

Me? I'm waiting for the whole thing to come in at under £30. I'll give it a month, shorter if Black Friday has it.

[plexabit]

3) It's partly "pay to win". Now in truth, the P2W elements of this game are nowhere near as dramatic as many people make out (especially reddit!)

I'm assuming you've seen it, but look at the downvotes on this post by EA. Higher than the previous most-downvoted post by a factor of 20. (And somehow 70 gold? You could have bought the heroes instead...)

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/

[Corky34]

Reducing the price is nothing more than a con intended to grab media headline as they also apparently decreased the amount of credits you can earn so you still need to put in the same hours (correction: apparently they decrease the hours need), i won't quote the entire post from Reddit but a post from someone who claims to work in electronic media explains the game EA are playing in order to get their hands on as much of your money as possible.

The reason this works is two-fold: 1. Journalists who cover the initial outrage feel that, ethically, they have to post the follow up but probably aren't going to do the research to figure out if the changes are substantial or effective at fixing the actual issue. (Edit: I've started seeing articles pop up already about the "changes" and at best, all they do is parrot the good research that various Redditors have done.) 2. Loyal fans who get fed up with it and decide not to buy the game are desperately searching for a reason to forgive EA so they can play their neato shooty game so they'll take any crumbs they are given.

I personally feel that journalists who cover EA's bait-and-switch are doing their readers a disservice, especially as the above linked Reddit comment was posted a full day before EA did exactly what was predicted.

[Spud1]

I'm assuming you've seen it, but look at the downvotes on this post by EA. Higher than the previous most-downvoted post by a factor of 20. (And somehow 70 gold? You could have bought the heroes instead...)

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBat...ocked/dppum98/

Yup I have, been keeping a close eye on reddit

I'm not defending EA's business practices in any way..but I guess my point is that despite all the controversy it's still a good, fun game underneath it all. Things get taken out of context all the time too, regardless of how despicable EA may be.

[frozen-monkey]

"Rather than paying extra cash, it is possible to earn that amount of credits from playing through the game for approx 48 hours total."

This is exactly why micro-transactions and loot boxes are winning...get the hero after 48 hours of game play or get the hero instantly for a charge because you can't be bothered to put the effort in. EA aren't doing anything wrong, they're just exploiting a market to earn money, the people doing something wrong are the ones who want instant gratification with little or no effort and who are willing to pay for it.

[Yoyoyo69]

EA have been on par with the devil himself going on for decades now, despite the odd improvement in recent times.

They aren't the only ones. Konami are terribe now and even MGS V still has a great deal if grind (whilst still being better than anything EA do mind you)

Rainbow six has a similar system to Battlefront 2 in regards to huge level if grind.

Probably the buggest culprit by a mile though, and who always seem to avoid mention, is onetime great Rockstar.

The have recently announced also (actually Taketwo announcement, but the publish so....) all future games will contain huge portions of Microtransactions.

It's the in thing, as always legislators are a decade ir 2 behind. - market to kids, strip game and sell stripped content OR market new or practically mandatory dlc and watch peer pressure make you money.

I've been very disgusted by Rockstar and Taketwo for a while

[QuorTek]

It is EA, it is trash.. played the first EA based one for a while, but honestly you will get more entertainment value in the original SWBF series.

[Kjnowak]

I am actually really happy with the game (so far) and the in total I have racked up something like 24,000 credits in one day so I'm really not that bothered. If they have kept it at 60,000 for Vader however I would have been annoyed. I really don't think it's as bad as some people are making out but yes it would have been better if they were just available to begin with as they are the classic "core" characters of SW.

[Rables]

This will always be a thorny issue until the end consumer takes action. If you are offended by the micro transactions do not play, or buy the base game. EA or any other business wouldn't pursue this model if there wasn't enough people prepared to pay to win. Or pick it up in two years time for a fifth of the price! The last BF is still seeing plenty of online players two years on. Gamer's need to stick up for themselves and support the developers that have fair pay structures. With this issue our fondness and goodwill of the games subject matter is being exploited, it may hurt the super fan but just walk away with your principles if its such an issue for you. If it starts hitting EA’s bottom line you will soon see a change in direction.