Gamers have scored a huge victory against the scourge of microtransactions, as the most downvoted post in Reddit history has forced Electronic Arts to make massive changes to the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront II.
Star Wars: Battlefront II is the most viewed game from E3 2017 on YouTube, as fans were excited for the sequel to 2015's Star Wars: Battlefront. However, revealed information on microtransactions has pushed some players to cancel their preorders for the game, and it remains to be seen whether Electronic Arts has done enough to bring them back.
Electronic Arts And The Most Downvoted Post In Reddit History
It all started with a thread on the official Star Wars: Battlefront subreddit where the opening post called out EA because Darth Vader, the premiere villain of the franchise, was locked in the game. Not just him too, as most of the famous characters in the series were hidden behind microtransactions.
The problem was not the fact that gaining access to the characters required microtransactions that involved in-game currency or real money, as the trend has been prevalent in the video game industry. Instead, the issue was the massive cost to unlocking them.
Another Redditor took the time to calculate what it would take to unlock one of these characters in Star Wars: Battlefront II. EA and developer DICE decided that in-game credits would be awarded depending on the time played rather than the scores of gamers in matches. The Redditor, who goes by the username TheHotterPotato, found that it would take 40 hours of gameplay to earn 60,000 credits to unlock a character like Darth Vader. That is simply an insane amount of time to unlock one character in a game that players have already paid full price for.
Now, here comes the even more brutal part. Electronic Arts responded to the first thread, saying that it wants to provide the players "with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes," and that the costs to unlock the characters were based on data from the open beta.
The reaction to the post was historic, as it received 542,000 downvotes until the thread was locked. The post claimed the infamy of being the most downvoted post in Reddit history.
EA Reduces 'Star Wars: Battlefront II' Unlock Requirements
It appears that gamers were able to send their message to Electronic Arts loud and clear. The publisher announced that it will be making massive changes to certain Star Wars: Battlefront II characters through a 75 percent reduction in the number of credits needed to unlock them.
From 60,000 credits, Darth Vader will now only require 15,000 credits, like Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Leia Organa, and Emperor Palpatine will only cost 10,000 credits, and Iden Versio, the main character of the game's single-player mode, will only require 5,000 credits.
Who ever said that public outcry no longer achieves anything? This is a great win against abusive microtransactions that have been popping up in video games recently.
