On Monday, EA’s community team made what has become the reddit’s most highly-downvoted comment. The comment, which was posted on the Star Wars Battlefront II subreddit, defended the game’s progression systems. Many of the game’s hero characters are now an unlockable with a hefty in-game price tag. This includes some that were instantly available in the 2015 reboot. Fans expressed concern that pressure was being put on them to spend real money and speed up the unlock process. The comment is as follows:
“The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
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.“
As of the time of writing, it sits at a score of -450,000. The previous record was roughly 25,000 downvotes.
The community reaction was understandable, and EA were quick to address fan’s concerns. On Tuesday, the company made a blog post stating that they would be slashing the in-game credit cost of heroes by 75%. For example, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader now cost 15,000 as opposed to 60,000. They also stated that they would conduct a reddit AMA on Wednesday with members of the game’s development team. It was a summative moment in the buildup to Battlefront II. The last few months have been plagued with debate around game’s content. EA’s season pass model was scrapped in favour of free DLC, seemingly funded by loot boxes and premium currency. The change has been a consistent sore spot for fans since its reveal.
Unfortunately, following the comment’s posting, a number of developers working on the game received abuse and death threats online. This kind of behaviour is not only reprehensible, but utterly unproductive in the discussion surrounding the game.
This controversy follows EA’s recent closure of Visceral Studios and last week’s announcement that they would be purchasing Respawn Entertainment.
