The story of Electronic Arts and the hot-button microtransactions topic they have been dealing with since the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II continues to be at the forefront of the Star Wars gaming community. You’ve already seen EA’s response to the negative reaction gamers had to how microtransactions affected progression (and let’s face it, the overall fun factor) within Battlefront II. And while Electronic Arts has taken steps to reduce that fury felt by gamers, the idea of microtransactions and how they will be implemented in the future remains on their to-do list.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 continues its rollercoaster ride post-release. After a microtransaction fiasco lead Disney to intervene and a swarm of angry fans, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen had a chance to speak at this year’s Credit Suisse Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on a number of topics, including its dedication to microtransactions and how it plans and doesn’t plan to implement them.
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Jorgensen said EA made its decision to pull away from Battlefront 2’s microtransaction-based Star Cards because players felt they were paying to win. Jorgensen noted the distaste for this kind of payment/design structure, but didn’t dismiss it completely. “Some people have more time than money, and some people have more money than time,” he said. “You want to always balance those two.”
To that end, the company is still committed to implementing microtransactions in some way, but is figuring out the right way to do that. “We’re learning and listening to the community in terms of how best to roll that out in the future, and there’s more to come as we learn more,” Jorgensen said.
Oh, and if the ability to customize the look & design of your character is something you are hoping for in Battlefront II, don’t hold your breath.
“If you did a bunch of cosmetic things, you might start to violate the canon,” the CFO said. “Darth Vader in white probably doesn’t make sense, versus in black. Not to mention you probably don’t want Darth Vader in pink. No offense to pink, but I don’t think that’s right in the canon.”
