Eurogamer.net notes that Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake
Jorgensen commented further on the microtransaction controversy in
Star Wars
Battlefront II during
yesterday's
Credit Suisse Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. This situation
has provoked
so
many
negative stories
(as recently
as
yesterday) that it's hard to believe the action game sequel came out
under two weeks ago. Though the
company suspended microtransactions based on the pay-to-win outrage from many
fronts (possibly including IP owner
Disney itself), Jorgensen
says they are still hoping to add them back into the game. They quote him as
saying "We're not giving up on the notion of MTX [microtransactions]," because
they are looking at "layering in another economic model to try and make up for
some of the economics you lose" by not selling DLC. They offer more of his
statements on the controversy:
"We're really watching how people are
playing the game. We're trying to understand are there certain modes where MTX
may be more interesting than not? What are the consumers saying about it? How
are the consumers playing the game? What do the metrics look like? We're
learning and listening to the community to decide how best to roll that out in
the future."
How did EA fail to see the loot box problem coming? "We did some testing around
the MTX model but not enough to really understand some of the reactions we
ultimately got," Jorgensen said. There were bigger concerns at the time such as
the beta working with millions of people playing.
"We pulled-off on the MTX because the real issue the consumer had was they felt
it was a pay-to-win mechanic," he added. "The reality is: there's different
types of players in games. Some people have more money than time, and some
people have more time than money, and you want to always balance those two.
"For us it's a great learning experience. We are trying to run the company with
an ear to the consumer at all times, not only in the testing phase but when the
game is up and running. We're trying to build games that last for years, not for
months... If we're not making mistakes along the way and learning from them,
that's when you should worry about us. But our view is these are great
opportunities for us to continue to tune the game, to adjust things."