EA has responded to Battlefront II pay to win concerns

The beta for EA and Dice’s upcoming shooter Star Wars: Battlefront II has recently ended with many players raising their concerns over what was essentially a pay to win reward system. Gamers were furious that items such as weapons, attachments and more could be unlocked via Loot Crates that were available for purchase with real money. This gave a competitive advantage to those willing to pay for Loot Crates, ergo, paying to win.

Well now EA is jumping to the defense of Battlefront II and has also revealed some fairly significant changes to the game thanks to feedback from players. You can read up all about it in their official statement.

“We know you have a lot of questions about Crates and progression, so we want to clarify a few things, as the complete system was not in the Beta and will continue to be tuned over time:

• There are many things you can earn in the game, including weapons, attachments, credits, Star Cards, Emotes, Outfits and Victory Poses.
• As a balance goal, we’re working towards having the most powerful items in the game only earnable via in-game achievements.
• Crates will include a mix of of Star Cards, Outfits, Emotes or Victory Poses.
• Players earn crates by completing challenges and other gameplay milestones, or by purchasing them with in-game credits or Crystals, our premium currency.
• If you get a duplicate Star Card in a crate, you will get crafting parts which you can then use to help upgrade the Star Card of your choice.
• And lastly, you have to earn the right to be able to upgrade Star Cards and unlock most Weapons. You can only upgrade or unlock them if you have reached a high enough rank, which is determined by playing the game.”

It’s great that EA are listening to player feedback, especially because pay to win is never a good system, particularly not in games that you pay full price to play. Although gamers still aren’t completely happy with the changes. It’s that line about removing the most powerful items rather than any item that gives a competitive advantage that has people concerned. Even though items that give the biggest competitive advantage are being removed, things like Star Cards can still be unlocked via Loot Crate which have the potential to help players competitively. This has raised concerns in the Battlefront II community that EA aren’t willing to go all out and make microtransactions completely cosmetic. After all, why would they only take a half measure to fixing an issue?

What do you think? Is this good enough or still unacceptable?