Fans and critics have been lambasting EA over the weekend amidst calculations that certain unlockable heroes in Star Wars Battlefront II may take 40 hours to unlock (i.e. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, etc.). In an attempt to quell the response from a segment of the fanbase, the EA Community Team created a Reddit post on the StarWarsBattlefront subreddit explaining the rationale behind their content unlock decisions.
“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.”
Without context, however, the “constant adjustments” named here signal the conscious decision to lock certain heroes behind tens of hours worth of gameplay in order to incentivize players to pay money to speed up the process. The post even acknowledges the frenzied feedback that players have been radiating since the news broke:
“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.”
This response post has already accrued over 350,000 downvotes — a record on Reddit, and one likely assisted by automated scripts and bots. For those not a fan of the systems, there is hope – however – that changes will be made before and in the days after launch to make these staples of the Star Wars universe less expensive to unlock both in terms of hours and money.
“Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.”
Star Wars Battlefront II will be released next week on November 17 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. You can check out our preview of the single-player campaign here, or read more on the hero unlock debacle here.