New Star Wars Battlefront game by EA

[yourbeliefs]

So DICE had their AMA today about BF2. As expected, there wasn't much in terms of concessions or actual admission that the current lootbox system is screwed up and probably shouldn't have been implemented in the first place. Most of the time they just fell back on the "We'll keep adjusting our systems as necessary" excuse, not realizing that there are already problems that could have been avoided.

 

[yourbeliefs]

So one of the "stories" to come out has been that an EA developer was dealing with death threats and harassment due to the fallout from BF2. Obviously, such activity from fans is never acceptable, and it's especially wrong to do to people who had nothing to do with the decisions you are angry with. However, it appears that said "developer" isn't even a developer at all and has been deceitful about what exactly his role at EA is/was/ever existed. I bring this up because this guy's tweet was picked up by NUMEROUS news outlets and put a painted gamers in an entitled, negative light. I mean, I wouldn't be SHOCKED if such things happened to some developers, but it's weird to see such a story.

https://kotaku.com/the-curious-case-of-the-ea-game-dev-who-said-he-receive-1820474458

 

[yourbeliefs]

In response to the MASSIVE backlash, EA has removed all microtransactions from BF2. Keep in mind this is only temporary according to them. They'll likely bring it back later on once people have forgotten about it and the reviews have been modified. This also doesn't address the fact that WITHOUT microstransactions, to unlock stuff will still be a big grind and time commitment.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 ditches real-money currency hours before launch

Of course, this didn't stop people from metabombing the game..

Metabombed: Star Wars Battlefront II Is ‘The Epitome Of Years Of Corporate Greed’ – The Jimquisition

 

[king3pj]

In response to the MASSIVE backlash, EA has removed all microtransactions from BF2. Keep in mind this is only temporary according to them. They'll likely bring it back later on once people have forgotten about it and the reviews have been modified. This also doesn't address the fact that WITHOUT microstransactions, to unlock stuff will still be a big grind and time commitment.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 ditches real-money currency hours before launch

Of course, this didn't stop people from metabombing the game..

Metabombed: Star Wars Battlefront II Is ‘The Epitome Of Years Of Corporate Greed’ – The Jimquisition

Here is the actual announcement. They did say they were going to make changes to the game so they won't just be turning off real money purchases and leaving the progression system the way it is with the current grind. Who knows how long it will take them to make a completely new progression system though.... The multiplayer portion of the game may be in a very rough place for quite a while.

 

[Derwin0]

In response to the MASSIVE backlash, EA has removed all microtransactions from BF2. Keep in mind this is only temporary according to them. They'll likely bring it back later on once people have forgotten about it and the reviews have been modified. This also doesn't address the fact that WITHOUT microstransactions, to unlock stuff will still be a big grind and time commitment.

From what I've seen, they're going to be changing the microtransaction system from helping progression (ie, pay to win) to cosmetic (like Overwatch) in order to order being labeled a game of chance, and being banned in Europe based on that. Not to mention the call from Disney about the bad press resulting from the pay to win system.

The fan backlash had nothing to do with them reversing course, it was all European regulators declaring it a "paid game of chance" and the call from Disney based on that designation. Last thing Disney wants is to be associated with Gambling.

Is Star Wars Battlefront II Giving Disney and EA a Gambling Problem?

 

[king3pj]

From what I've seen, they're going to be changing the microtransaction system from helping progression (ie, pay to win) to cosmetic (like Overwatch) in order to order being labeled a game of chance, and being banned in Europe based on that. Not to mention the call from Disney about the bad press resulting from the pay to win system.

The fan backlash had nothing to do with them reversing course, it was all European regulators declaring it a "paid game of chance" and the call from Disney based on that designation. Last thing Disney wants is to be associated with Gambling.

Is Star Wars Battlefront II Giving Disney and EA a Gambling Problem?

I think the backlash definitely had something to do with it even if there were other factors involved. No company wants to be responsible for the most downvoted Reddit post in history even if that number represents a small fraction of the total player base. If all the hardcore people in your audience hate you eventually that starts to spread to the mainstream as well. Yes, the bottom line is how much money they can make but eventually overwhelming negativity like that is going to effect sales.

 

[yourbeliefs]

The Lootbox Controversy simply won't go away. Now a State Representative from Hawaii wants to fight the predatory nature of lootboxes and singles out Battlefront 2 as a specific example. Also, Belgium is looking to ban loot boxes as well.

Belgium moves to ban 'Star Wars Battlefront 2'-style loot boxes

 

[king3pj]

The Lootbox Controversy simply won't go away. Now a State Representative from Hawaii wants to fight the predatory nature of lootboxes and singles out Battlefront 2 as a specific example. Also, Belgium is looking to ban loot boxes as well.

Belgium moves to ban 'Star Wars Battlefront 2'-style loot boxes

If anything actually comes from this it could completely decimate the business model of many free to play games. I bet the entire video game industry is pretty upset with EA right now. They took things too far and now it might have ramifications for everyone.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I don't think it'll destroy loot boxes, BUT it may finally lead to some regulation, so game companies will need to be more transparent about them, which I think is a good thing. This video describes what loot box regulation may mean pretty well:



Loot boxes are a viable form of business, but like any business model, they can be abused, and EA really screwed the pooch with what they did.

 

[king3pj]

I don't think it'll destroy loot boxes, BUT it may finally lead to some regulation, so game companies will need to be more transparent about them, which I think is a good thing. This video describes what loot box regulation may mean pretty well:



Loot boxes are a viable form of business, but like any business model, they can be abused, and EA really screwed the pooch with what they did.

I don’t think loot boxes will be banned either but that is exactly what some goverenment officials in various countries are asking for so there is a chance it could happen. Remember that the government also wanted to ban violent video games because they still think only kids play them. The anti-EA campaign saying that Disney was targeting kids and trying to get them addicted to gambling probably doesn’t help that case.

I still don’t think anything will happen because you would hope the government has more important things to do than worry about video games. At the same time, I think there are plenty of people in our own government who would be happy to attack video games again. Either way I think it’s pretty safe to say that our government doesn’t understand video games well enough to be trusted to come up with the solution to this problem. Everyone was much better off before EA went to far and got their attention.

If the proposed ban on loot boxes in the European Union went through it would have a massive impact on free to play games. Look at a game like Heroes of the Storm. The game is free and loot boxes are its biggest revenue stream. What do they do if they were no longer allowed to sell loot boxes in the EU? Not allow people in the EU to play anymore? Allow people in the EU to keep playing but not have a way to monitize there? Completely redesign the monitization model everywhere? They could also shut the game down since it is a few years old and all this work might not be worth it at this point.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I don’t think loot boxes will be banned either but that is exactly what some goverenment officials in various countries are asking for so there is a chance it could happen. Remember that the government also wanted to ban violent video games because they still think only kids play them. The anti-EA campaign saying that Disney was targeting kids and trying to get them addicted to gambling probably doesn’t help that case.

I still don’t think anything will happen because you would hope the government has more important things to do than worry about video games. At the same time, I think there are plenty of people in our own government who would be happy to attack video games again. Either way I think it’s pretty safe to say that our government doesn’t understand video games well enough to be trusted to come up with the solution to this problem. Everyone was much better off before EA went to far and got their attention.

If the proposed ban on loot boxes in the European Union went through it would have a massive impact on free to play games. Look at a game like Heroes of the Storm. The game is free and loot boxes are its biggest revenue stream. What do they do if they were no longer allowed to sell loot boxes in the EU? Not allow people in the EU to play anymore? Allow people in the EU to keep playing but not have a way to monitize there? Completely redesign the monitization model everywhere? They could also shut the game down since it is a few years old and all this work might not be worth it at this point.

I don't think the EU or any government body would push forward with all out bans of loot boxes. However, it would likely lead to the games industry finally "fixing" itself. Similar to what happened back when the government wanted to regulate video games based on content, the industry came together and created the ESRB to rate games so people could make informed decisions. Similarly, the industry may decide to be more transparent with their loot box systems and perhaps be more "generous" with the payouts so that people feel less cheated when buying them.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Here's my review of the campaign of Battlefront 2.

 

[Derwin0]

I don't think the EU or any government body would push forward with all out bans of loot boxes. However, it would likely lead to the games industry finally "fixing" itself.

Wouldn't be a complete ban, but it would regulate them as "gambling" or "games of chance", which would lead to the same thing.

And considering they are paid games of chance, it's hard to see how the game companies could win if they challenge an EU ruling that they are games of chance. And the EU is not shy about issuing rulings against large multinational corporations (especially US based ones).

I agree with King3pj that EA could have potentially screwed all the gaming companies that use the free to play model, which is most of the mobile gaming market.