In-game purchases have been temporarily disabled in Star Wars Battlefront II.
For months, Battlefront II had been under attack for “Star-Cards” and other premium content that would grant paid-for advantages to players.
Late on November 16, Oskar Gabrielson, GM of DICE, made a blog post addressing this. Here is an excerpt:
Our goal has always been to create the best possible game for all of you – devoted Star Wars fans and game players alike. We’ve also had an ongoing commitment to constantly listen, tune and evolve the experience as it grows…
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…
This last-minute decision is a great step for the world of gaming. It shows that the developer and publisher respected their customers and devoted Battlefront fans.
However, Gabrielson leaves us with an eerie sign-off:
“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.”
We can only hope that in the future, DICE & EA will stay in tune with the light side of the force, listen to their customers, and make changes when needed.
Oskar Gabrielson’s Blog Post can be found here.
My recent post on microtransactions can be found here.
