When DICE and EA announced that they were temporarily turning off microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2 as a response to the great loot box backlash, fans celebrated, but cautiously. Right there in the initial statement it was made clear that microtransactions would return, in some form, at some point.
BLG writes, "Some of the most popular games have had a rough start, with some of them being downright unplayable.
Despite that, developers have managed to turn it around for them and make their game worth playing. Here are some games that had a rough start but were pretty great."
Sea of Thieves... I'm not disagreeing that the game has improved in terms of content. But I feel that the most significant change between now and its release is actually the public perception. Nowadays, most people are aware that the game is a multiplayer PvP-focused experience first and foremost, and not "Black Flag made by Rare". Consequently, people dismissing the whole experience because the single-player aspect is lacking or the story is plain are much less common.
Several years ago, i submitted an idea to Rare that would change up the mechanics of battling opponents in the game. whereby if you died in battle, you turned into a skeleton warrior and had to fight your way back to the land of the living. It was an interesting twist on respawning and would allow the player to experience both sides of a battle.
I keep hoping to see something like that get added to the game.
It's sad that this quick retort is more often than not true... The industry's acceptance of release and patch has gone too far.
Days gone! By the end of the game I couldn't drop it down! I went around so many hours killing zombies! It was addictive by the end.
I don't know, I got it abit late, and struggled for a few days, and then all of a sudden it just got good!!
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PCGamer: DICE managed to turn things around, and I'm sad that it's over.
Replies(1)Imagine if it were this good from the get go, then grew into something even greater. Good on DICE for supporting the game for as long as it did, but people seem to forgive and forget too fast. I would never blindly praise any game that took years to get to a point where it's actually worth playing AFTER I payed full price on release day. Also Fallen Order says hello
This is what happens when you think with your pockets first. No one should have to pay $60, a season pass, AND loot boxes just to get the "full experience." The argument of "we have families to feed" and other nonsense is for the CEO's, Investors, and management, not the actual employees putting in hours to barely make ends meet. Hopefully this is a wake up call to stop trying to find any way possible to squeeze money out of your fanbase.
The one factor I have seen but not many people talked about; children. Something of this magnitude needs to be investigated because it's a T rated game, on top of enticing people to spend more $ for a "chance" to get what they want. There needs to be a line drawn between spending $ towards an experience and just pure greed. After my situation with Fortnite I no longer will spend $ on "chances" because it's the holding out a carrot to later find out you will never get it.
I know people here generally don't like Forbes, but this article actually has some interesting insight and I hadn't seen it posted here. Here's a summary of some of the points:
1. Battlefront got backlash for having a $50 season pass and launching with barebones content.
2. In Star Wars Battlefront 2 they changed the system and promised free DLC while using microtransactions and loot-boxes to monetize the game.
3. Thanks to the backlash, they have removed microtransactions . . . but they've stated that they're planning on reinstating them.
4. If they do bring back microtransactions tied to progression then they will still face backlash.
5. If they bring back lootboxes with only cosmetic items they'll still draw ire. They've already enticed responses from multiple governments on the issues of lootboxes.
6. That leaves them with really only one path forwards that won't bring back a ton of backlash: Implementing an online store with microtransactions to purchase cosmetic equipment. No randomized lootboxes at all. It's likely that wouldn't sell as well and certainly wouldn't be nearly so profitable.
7. At the end of the day they promised free-DLC, so not delivering on that makes them look bad. At the same time the game sold significantly worse than the first game and they won't be making the money they thought they would on microtransactions and lootboxes. Not releasing the promised free DLC would upset those that bought the game. Essentially they've backed themselves into a lose-lose situation.
No matter what they do...they are f*****
It's glorious
I hope people don't get suckered into Battlefront III...even if it looks great and they've put their best PR team on it I would honestly wait after launch just incase.
Best thing to do at this point is take the old Battlefront and Battlefront II, remake them, put them together in one huge package and then release it. THEN they will see how well it will sell.
I think people are missing the most obvious business move here.... EA will most likely not allow a single piece of DLC to come out for this game and gimp the number of firmware updates. Then they will tout this as some shining example of a dystopian future where games no longer receive continued support after launch if they can't have their "games as a service" model. That way they avoid backlash for charging for previously promised as free dlc, avoid the crap they would catch for reintroducing microtransactions, and have something to spin for their narrative that microtransactions are essential to all games moving forward.
Oh boo hoo. EA execs will just lay off the studio staff and the devs will blame gamers.