Battlefront II pay2win extravaganza

Surprise.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-30-star-wars-battlefront-2-loot-boxes-spark-pay-to-win-fears

Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot boxes spark pay-to-win fears

Earlier this week, Star Wars Battlefront 2 gameplay footage surfaced online that showed the sci-fi shooter's loot box system.

Unlike its predecessor, Battlefront 2 has randomised crates of Star Cards that offer gameplay-affecting power-ups.

These can give you more health, power up weapons, boost damage or grant other special abilities - such as a healing effect for nearby allies.

Though the feature wasn't working when the revelations came to light, duplicate Star Cards will be automatically converted into "crafting parts" which you can then put towards a particular card or to upgrading a card you have already.

You can get the currency used for buying crates by just playing the game, but the possibility of buying unlimited loot boxes using real-world cash sparked concern among fans.

EA has now confirmed to Eurogamer that yes, you can buy more of these crates using real-world money.

It's not clear, however, how big an advantage this will create. Certainly, there are different loot rarities, and you can pay for a box with a greater chance at better - Legendary or Epic - quality loot.

"Players will be rewarded in the game through regular play in many different, earnable ways including crates," an EA spokesperson told us. "For those that want to accelerate the rewards, they can do so by purchasing crates that contain randomised items and rewards."

It's not the first EA game to offer a system like this for obtaining loot - Battlefield offers Battlepacks, for example. But Battlepack contents are limited to cosmetic gun and vehicle skins, plus unique melee weapon designs. The suggestion from Battlefront 2's alpha is loot items actually affect how you and your team plays.

Perhaps it's to be expected - Battlefront 2 will offer a free season of DLC without the need to buy a season pass: future maps, weapons and characters will launch throughout the year. EA has to make up that money somewhere.

But the nature of the loot boxes has fans worried the core design of the game will suffer.

The above video's top comment is from fan Josh Klein: "Hopefully this doesn't mean this game will be pay to win. Cough cough Call of Duty...?"

"Day one some rich kid with parents credit card spends $100+ on crates gets all high level cards and bam is kicking butt non stop for months till everyone catches up...?" SwanyPlaysGames replied.

Alistair Alexander countered: "We're getting free DLCs so they have to make money for the DLCs somehow and this is fine with me as long as the crates are fair, just hoping that the crates are not like COD supply drops?"

So, how fair will it feel? We may have a wait to find out. EA will likely tune the game further before its full release in November.

Not even a good game in the first place

Yeah that was real funny, after hearing a AngryJoe interview with a producer about how they were "really careful with the balance of the game to not make it P2W"

2011.

It's a pretty poor choice and it's not even proper Pay To Win. It's "Pay to keep gambling until you finally win".

I'll still buy it like the consumer and Star Wars whore I am.

Whatever, I'm still buying Battlefront 2 on PC and that'll hold me until Anthem hits the market next year and besides, I love Star Wars :)

Oh this is just gold. I mean, it's EA, I knew they would f*ck it up, but not like this lawl.

While this makes me sad I'm still going to buy this game but not spending any money on loot crates.

This is going to earn them billions, possibly more than the game itself will. We can shout, scream and wail all we want with internerd rage, EA will just laugh all the way to the bank.

This is why. (Not getting at you Wasdie, just using your comment to state a fact)

Titanfall 2 made me hopefull with their DLC all the maps/weapons/ect are free and you only pay for cosmetics. Should have known that was just due to the abysmal sales. Loot crates are the future, sadly

@GarGx1: Also to add, Battlefront 2 is riding the hype train due to Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi opens December 2017 thus it's getting a pass because it's Star Wars. The same results happen to the first EA Battlefront game when that too was riding the hype train for Episode 7.

You can judge me if you will but I like what I saw from Battlefront 2 cause it has campaign that is taking place right after episode 6 and this is a day one purchase.

BF2 looks like a great game and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted. Though a pay 2 win system being built in is a real dampener on any hype I have.

Just to be clear, I'm not judging you or anyone else, it's not my place to tell others where or how to spend their own money. That is entirely your prerogative so I hope you get many hours of enjoyment from it when it comes out.

It's not the purchasing of the game that's the real problem. It's when consumers get into the real-money looting that racks up the revenue for EA, which signals to them that we're OK with it. So why wouldn't they? They're just taking their queue from us.

It's like you said, knowing it'll make them more cash than the base game itself even at full price they'll laugh all the way to the bank.... because of impulsive gamers with no self control or sensible consumer judgement. The same type that eats up the Seasons Passes and pre-orders everything they can get their hands on. It's the impatient, immediate gratification camp with their self centered shortsightedness that ruins it for the rest of us who just want well polished gaming experiences at a reasonable price, subjective as the latter may be.

We can send a message without missing out on the game itself. If everybody just bought the game without pre-ordering it, got the DLC as they selected without picking up a Season Pass to get it, and never touched the microtransactions in a full priced AAA title - we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. We could still play the game and they'd get the hint to forego these features in the next installment.

Loot crates. Paying to win is bad.

http://wccftech.com/star-wars-battlefront-ii-closed-alpha-new-gameplay-videos-showcase-crates-star-cards/

@GarGx1: I'm not into this whole P2W myself. I always play the actual game by earning the games money and as long as it's not shoving down my face that is. I'm just more interested in the campaign however then I am for MP.

Hype am splashed. Preorder cancelled. (Not saying this ironically, calling Gamestop right now)

Since seeing Rogue One, my brother has had a renaissance with Star Wars games, and has gone back to playing TIE Fighter and X-Wing VS. TIE Fighter. Watching him play those masterpieces and then comparing them to how Star Wars games are being handled today is so disheartening.

Sigh. Is it too much to ask to have a AAA game that isnt full of DLC, season passes, and/or pay to win bullshit?

I was actually starting to consider getting this game. Nevermind EA

I remember back when Lord Vader still had his standards...

(You can watch the whole series of Orange trailer ads here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8lg87EgEbA :)

No one buy this.

Sigh will probably pass on this then, will wait and see how it turns out, but P2W in a shooter just sounds horrible!

Meh, Star Wars sucks anyway.

I knew they were gonna pull some garbage out of their behind the moment I heard dlc will be free. I was expecting a lootbox system and I wouldn't mind it if it's just for useless cosmetics like in Overwatch, but making you gamble for actual game changing items? EA, go screw youself. I lost whatever interest I had in this game.

I'm not surprised by this at all. The moment they said the maps were gonna be free I expected some bullshit like this. I won't spend a dime on any of these loot boxes. I probably won't spend time in the MP. I just want the game for the campaign mode.

Accelerated rewards, not buying power, just buying access to things sooner.

A small sacrifice for free content imo.. hardly the end of the world. no different going into CoD at rank 1 vs a max rank person... most of your "skill" should carry you through.

Typical System Wars over exaguration.

Things = power

These can give you more health, power up weapons, boost damage or grant other special abilities - such as a healing effect for nearby allies.

Personally I'd happily pay for expansion of map packs over an imbalanced game. Or a game deliberately flooded to promote paying for unlocks, designed from the get go with it specifically in mind.

Accept this, you promote it, you promote it, it gets worse. Which is exactly what EA and others want. Which is exactly what is going to happen ofc.

The problem are these cards to begin with.

There is no reason to make such an imbalanced aspect to the game.

The fact that you can pay for these cards doesn't make it much worse, but it does make it worse.

Maybe I'm just desensitised from Team Fortress 2 doing the same thing. And yea, I dont like the practice.

But Star Wars Battlefront is a casual series.. a pretty poorly designed one too, its casual fan service... in no way were they ever designed to be good MP games... far before this.

If you get all content for free, then whatever ... honestly, I'd only pick this up for fan service

So, what you're saying is...

...they're taking the worst parts of SWTOR....

...and the worst parts of Battlefront (2015), which is all of it...

...and making Battlefront 2? GOOD LORD!!!!

So, what you're saying is...

...they're taking the worst parts of SWTOR, which is the gambling....

...and the worst parts of Battlefront '15, which is all of it...

...and making Battlefront 2? GOOD LORD!!!!

But there is no reason we can't have both fan service AND a solid game... see: Jedi Knight series

Free Maps and the ability to earn in-game is good enough for me. Dont really care for the microtransactions as i'll just earn stuff the normal way.

I'm used to seeing this kind of nonsense with people I know off-site. Those diehard fans of Star Wars won't be able to resist; they'll keep dumping money into EA's collective pockets as they whisper to themselves "Just one more crate..."

This really needs to stop. If gamers keep buying loot boxes,then they are encouraging them.

As a Star Wars guy, I'm NOT even interested playing the MP at all nor do I even care about loot crates, all I wanna do is just play the story mode, shoot stuff, blow up stuff, doing space combat, and that's about it.

I wasn't planning on Buying it anyway. Even without the Pay2Win formula it is still Inferior to Original Battlefronts.

EA Hasn't made any Good Star Wars game So Far. I also have no hope for Visceral's SW game .

Disney shouldn't have shut down Lucasarts.(Even Lucasarts First Assault Game and Version 2 Looked more Hardcore than EA Battlefront)

Bummer, I was going to get the game too.

Well, you're better than the typical Star Wars nut. Good on you.

Well, I was thinking about it since they were adding classes, but my decision has shifted to "nope".

Lucasarts died a long time ago, officially before they died. They were making crap for a while before they went kaput.

Meh, still buying it. Doesn't prevent me from playing the game. If 10% of the community want to pump a shit ton of money into loot boxes so I can get free DLC, then thats fine.

Can EA just seriously not stop money grubbing for a single game? Goddamn.

Kids love them dang mystery boxes. You can tell Disney called those shots.