Star Wars Battlefront 2 | EA slashes 'hero' costs after fan backlash and promises change in Reddit Q&A

Video game publisher EA have announced they are cutting the in-game cost to unlock characters in the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront 2. The move comes after EA faced a continued backlash against some of its monetisation decisions in Star Wars Battlefront 2, the sequel to the popular first person Star Wars shooter. The cost of being able to access 'heroes' such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader has been reduced by 75%, effective immediately, after it emerged that players would need to spend dozens of hours to earn enough in-game credits or spend real-world money to unlock the characters quicker.

"Since the start of the project, listening to fans has been important in making sure Star Wars Battlefront II is the very best experience for all of you," said John Wasilcyzk, Executive Producer at developer DICE in a blog post. "We continue to make adjustments based on your feedback as the game launches worldwide this week. We want to ensure the game is balanced and fun both today and for years into the future.

"Making games great comes from regular tuning. As one example, today we’re making a substantial change based on what we’ve seen during the Play First trial. There’s been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes, especially Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning. We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it’s clear that more changes were needed." 

"Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players. It's a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly. It will be live today, with an update that is getting loaded into the game."

One of the unlockable heroes is Iden Versio, who takes centre stage in the single-player campaign of the game. As her price has been reduced, so has the reward for completing the campaign, according to GameInformer. 

Star Wars Battlefront II is officially released later this week, but has been available to subscribers of EA's Access programme and  fans posted online about how they disagree with the business model of the game, taking to the largest Star Wars Battlefront community on reddit to voice their thoughts. It follows a scheme that fans believe rewards players who pay real money on top of the game's base price for loot boxes, with much of the game locked behind either real-money payments or a large time investment.

This has come together to result in an official EA community account - EACommunityTeam - that now has the most downvoted comment in reddit's history. With the comment currently at a score of -294,000 points, the Star Wars Battlefront community is now filled with posts negatively responding to the game in a variety of areas. Some of the posts are people - from fans to those claiming to be a part of the games industry - going into what they dislike about the game, while others are making fun of EA and the situation as a whole. Many people are looking to refund the game, following both these criticisms and EA's official responses to them.

The greatest criticism, one which elicited the response from EACommunityTeam, involved how players must 'unlock' famous characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to play as them in the multiplayer modes. You can either pay extra to unlock the 'heroes' faster, or unlock them via in-game credits earned via a vast time commitment.

The cost of Vader, for instance, originally ran players 60,000 in-game credits. Under the alterations, he will now cost 15,000 credits. Though when players are earning just a few hundred in each match, it will still demand a considerable time input. The heroes are stronger than the regular soldiers, and must also be earned for a limited time each game. The full response to MBMMaverick saying this practice is "disgusting" is as follows. 

"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."

In a separate comment, EACommunityTeam indicated that the team are looking that progression and reward system, to ensure a "meaningful sense of reward for the time they spend with Battlefront 2."

"Our goal involves creating a compelling progression path for all of our players. There's a lot of content at launch with even more coming via live service, and we'll continuously adjust our progression mechanics to give players a sense of accomplishment as they explore all of Battlefront 2.

"I posted this in another thread, but feel it would be good to post here as well.

"Heroes earned through Credits: The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. 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.

"Credits Earned: We're looking at the results daily and will be continuing to tune this to ensure that players feel a meaningful sense of reward for the time they spend with Battlefront 2.

"We appreciate the conversation here, and our team is working to make the best choices possible for the game and the players. We will provide more details and updates as we can"

To better communicate the current plans, three members of the Star Wars Battlefront 2 development team took to Reddit in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) where fans were able to directly ask the developers about features and issues in Star Wars Battlefront 2. John Wasilczyk, executive producer, Paul Keslin, multiplayer producer, and Dennis Brannvall, design director, answered questions on November 15, reiterating that they would be looking at changing systems.

Brannvall, for example, stated that the team are looking into ways to make it easier for players to get the items they specifically want early on, rather than the limited system that's currently in place. Brannvall also promised that the way multiplayer matchmaking - the process by which players are selected to play against each other - is done means one player being leagues above everyone else in both skill and in-game items will not happen.

This follows on from controversy earlier this year surrounding the game's loot box system which rewards players with random in-game items at regular intervals. The primary issues players had were around the fact that content would be locked behind random chance and that players could speed up this process with real-money purchases, effectively creating a dynamic where those that paid money on top of the original cost of the game would have better weapons in the game than anyone else. 

That system was then changed after an open beta test earlier this year, hoping to alleviate these issues, but it appears that not enough has been done. One person who claims to be a game developer at EA, going by Biggsean66 on Twitter, tweeted that he has received 7 death threats and over 1600 personal attacks following this, stating it's "because of an unpopular feature in a game."