There's an "Update on
Star Wars Battlefront II"
on the Electronic Arts website from Oskar Gabrielson, the GM of DICE (thanks
PC Invasion). He announces that they have felt a great disturbance in the
Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out they were not buying SWBF2.
As a result of the outcry they are temporarily disabling real-money purchases in
the Star Wars action sequel until they can work out how to make them more
palatable and less Palpatine. As a result, all progression in the game will
require actually progressing in the game, though it sounds like the allure of
the dark side will eventually bring the return of microtransactions. Here's the
announcement, which begins with some sort of Jedi mind trick thanking fans for
raking them over the coals over this:
Thank you to everyone in our
community for being the passionate fans that you are.
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.
You’ve seen this with both the major adjustments, and polish, we have made over
the past several weeks.
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. 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 have created a game that is built on your input, and it will continue to
evolve and grow. Star Wars Battlefront II is three times the size of the
previous game, bringing to life a brand new Star Wars story, space battles, epic
new multiplayer experiences across all three Star Wars eras, with more free
content to come. We want you to enjoy it, so please keep your thoughts coming.
And we will keep you updated on our progress.