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Star Wars Battlefront 2, by Electronic Arts (EA), has undergone substantial updates and changes since the launch of the game in November of 2017. Regular players of Star Wars themed games were frustrated with the game at its early stage, due to the involvement of lootboxes in the multiplayer division of the game. A loot box is an in-game purchase consisting of a virtual container that awards players with items and modifications based on chance, also referred to as micro-transactions. Battlefront 2 uses loot boxes by way of “crates.” You can purchase crates via credits (the in-game currency), which you can buy with real money. In these crates, you have a chance at getting skins, emotes, and new abilities for your characters. 

    The reason players were so frustrated by this is because many abilities in the game were obtainable only by buying crates. This means players who choose to invest in loot boxes can pay for all the strongest abilities in the game, can be unstoppable in multiplayer. On the other hand, players who don’t feel like pouring their wallets into a video game have to settle for the default, insignificant abilities that won’t help them win the game. Gamers felt that EA making players pay $60 (already a high price) to play the game, and subsequently have to pay more to get abilities, was a compelling reason for them not to play. 

    Around that time, the general view of the gaming community was that Battlefront 2 was a terrible game, and just another way for EA to get their hands on a player’s money. However, EA heard the pleas of the various gaming communities, and just a few hours before the game was released back in November of 17, EA temporarily disabled the micro transaction feature, much to the satisfaction of fans. 

On this note, Oskar Gabrielson, general manager of Electronic Arts Digital Illusions CE division stated in a post on EA’s website: “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.”

Eventually, EA added microtransactions back to the game, to the annoyance of all gamers, and it stayed this way until fairly recently. Around June, EA was taken to court, and accused of underaged gambling. Kids would use their parents’ credit cards on the game, in hopes of winning new and useful items from the crates. They would continue to try and spend money until they gained more player abilities. It’s much like the logic of a claw machine. However, to the pleasure of all EA gamers everywhere, EA lost the lawsuit, and disabled the loot boxes feature in many of their games.

This was a cause for celebration in the Battlefront 2 community. Players were flocking back to the game, ready to play. Now, instead of having to pay for the good player upgrades, they can just play, and earn specific achievements to acquire the upgrades. 

Along with this, EA added many new updates, with new and refreshing characters from the recent Star Wars movie, as well as from the prequel trilogy.

I’ve played this game with so many friends, for hours upon hours, strengthening my friendships, and my in-game characters at the same time. I would definitely recommend this game to any gamer out there.