EA halted in-game sales of virtual goods in its high-profile sequel to “Star Wars Battlefront” on the eve of the game’s launch, bowing to pressure from Walt Disney Co. as... Disney Pressured EA to remove Micro-transactions from BattleFront II
I am totally against pay to be better, that I totally agree with. What I don't understand is why people are complaining that 40 hours to unlock a hero is such a problem? I am maybe an old timer, in gaming and grafting is what games should be about. The more effort you put into something, the greater the reward. Games with unlimited saves/respawns/continues as well as no punishment for dying are just way too easy. I play Diablo 3 on hardcore, because the thrill of dying adds to the excitement, not the same tedious, if I die, no punishment.... Maybe it's me, but I hate this baby state of people thinking they deserve to be the top when the effort they put in is negligible.
Come on man, 40 hours for ONE character is a very long amount of time. Keep in mind that it's effective gameplay. The idea is that they made the characters very hard to unlock in order to encourage you to spend money on loot boxes. That's a dick move and it's the reason why one of their comments became the most downvoted in the history of reddit (by a very large amount from the 2nd most downvoted). IIRC, I finished Witcher 3 in a bit over 40 hours. Dragon Age: Inquisition took around the same.
You choose to play Hardcore in Diablo if you like it. Would you like that others would be able to get stronger in hardcore by paying? (I know that doesnt really affect you in Diablo, but lets imagine the game had actual open world PvP and they could kill you) Thats the problem, your gameplay being affected by other players that payed extra money to get stronger.
Ha ha... so much for EAs apology to its customers... "We hear you loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases..." When in reality they were forced to turn off the transactions by Disney.
They're more likely worried about game sales than any morals. If people were buying loot crates or whatever they're called inSW:BF2 without any protests, Disney couldn't care less.
Pushing kids (main target of SW games) to anything resambling gambling in games is not good PR for Dysney. In example this kind of articles ( in Fortune.com site!) is a nightmare for Disney PR: http://fortune.com/2017/11/15/star-wars-battlefront-gambling-disney-electronic-arts-loot-box-crate/ https://twitter.com/ScarcyRS/status/930447060578512896/photo/1
If it's the only game you play constant without stopping, 40 hours is nothing. But this game is not a 40 hour single play game, it's not a 5 hour single play game. It gets boring fast. Truth be told, I hardly see a difference in gameplay from the first Star Wars Battlefront. Just to clarify, I don't think loot crates are a bad idea. I think loot crates you pay for to get an advantage in game(ahem Black Ops III also), is a bad idea. Most games that have loot crates are for visual affects, or games like Paragon where you can easily obtain cards from either buying them or from playing the game and grinding a fair amount.
This is basically it... if it's not pay2win, people wouldn't call out half as loud. I don't mind Overwatch's system for instance, EVERYTHING ist just of cosmetic nature. Gambling being one thing, but not gaining any in game advantages through paying is done right there. And I can't imagine Blizzard making little money on that, more the contrary...
Overwatch makes its own money lol, the loot boxes are one thing though but I dare say Overwatch and Blizzard in general makes money off of merchandise.
Yes they have TONS of that stuff, then again, the best money maker for Overwatch probably are the smurf accounts... seems like everybody has at least one (two accounts in total). Lootboxes also make some good money I can imagine, but people paying twice for one game is way faster hehe.
But that's exactly the problem with it - you spend 40 hours of playing for one character, and you get that character regardless of your skill. You didn't "earn" the character, you just simply unlocked it due to having too much time to kill. For me, 40 hours is probably the average amount of time I spend playing a game, ever. Y'know what's actually fun? Unlocking a character because you actually achieved something. Fighting games (whether that's Super Smash Bros, Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat, etc) are a perfect example of using your skill and devotion to unlock characters and items. These games reward you for not just playing, but playing well. Being a couch potato for 40 hours to get one character is not rewarding. Even EA knows this, which is why you they had you pay to avoid the time limit. If I had to sit around for 40 hours to get a new skin or outfit, that's fine with me. That shows you're a devoted player, but it doesn't say anything about your skill level. I'm not even sure they care that much about sales, but rather not having the Star Wars name (or their own name) tarnished. Disney is a greedy company, but unlike EA, they're usually pretty good about not being so obvious about it. They want your money, but they know that happy customers have the highest yields.
maybe the can pressure EA to remove it from swtor too so they are actual forced to work on actual content that ISNT solo play, and actual add multplayer/group content and actual fix buggs too
Not surprised that Disney stepped in. Also about Microtransactions being in games I feel that free to play RPGs such as the Korean ARPG Grand Chase got it correct because that game had 2 forms of currency to purchase stuff one that you earned in game and another that you purchase with actual money to purchase items and characters. But it wasn't mandatory to purchase the 2nd currency because you could unlock the characters yourself by doing quests or you could use actual money to unlock the characters faster.
If a parent has to pay $10 to shut their kid up, guess what? On the one hand, peace a quiet, on the other, a temper tamtrum that will put ten years on your life just by watching it. You really think grown adults play Disney games, and even more so - parents with kids? This isn't just PTW, this is Price Gouging and morally exploitative.
Not many people have 40hrs to put into a game. There are a lot of adults out there who love Star Wars. Also this game isn't an RPG.
The only thing EA that I buy is their sports games because those are still fun to play with other people.
