When Star Wars Battlefront II was announced, many fans were hopeful that it would be better than the original. Not because the original was bad per se, but it lacked certain features that fans felt the series deserved. Mainly, it lacked story mode, but there were other things too. So, when EA revealed just how big the game would be, it was praised, lauded even, and hype began to rise. Then, the betas came out, the progression system and microtransaction focus was discovered, and it all went downhill from there.
Upon the games release, EA had to shut down the microtransaction system, and some even refused to pick up the game due to what EA had done. That impact has been felt for a while now, but the Wall Street Journal can now confirm that the game has not met EA’s sales expectations. It was expecting to sell 10 million+ units in a certain amount of time, but right now, Battlefront II is around now.
Now, there is some confusion as to that number, some are saying that the 9 million is the shipped number and not sold, especially given previous reports that said Battlefront II didn’t sell a million units in November. Regardless though, the CEO of EA agrees that one of the reasons the title didn’t meet expectations is because of the microtransaction system and Loot Boxes. However, he did note that they would be coming back in the “upcoming months”. But when exactly is very uncertain.
If it does come back, it needs to mesh well with the revamped progression system that’s aiming to be released in March. These two issues drew a lot of ire from fans, including creating the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. And the Loot Box issue caused governments from all over the world to question whether Loot Boxes were gambling.
We’ll have to see how this all unfolds for the game.
