When Star Wars Battlefront II was announced, people were hyped. When it was revealed that the game would feature an original story that would bridge the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, people were hyped. When more playable characters, more customizations options, more planets, stunning graphics, and epic space battles were shown, people were hyped. But, then, the beta became playable, and the microtransactions were revealed, and players were not hyped, they were furious.
So furious in fact with the microtransactions (and various other features of the game) that gamers took to the internet to make sure everyone knew. And soon enough, everyone did. Sites all over reported how EA was going to basically charge people $2100 to unlock everything, else they would have to play for over a year to get it all. It got so bad that EA had to shut down the microtransactions for the game. But apparently, that was just the beginning.
For according to CNBC, the plight of Battlefront II continued far before and far beyond its launch. For EA’s stock has fallen 8.5% due to the backlash surrounding the game. What that means is that they’ve lost 3.5 billion dollars in value. That’s an incredible amount, and there’s no doubt that it’s because of gamers protesting the microtransaction system, there is no other explanation.
This is backed up by the smaller sales for the sequel over the original. In the UK, the sales were down 61% upon the original. 61%! As if that wasn’t enough, politicians are now taking a stand against practices like EA, because they feel this kind of aggressive microtransaction system isn’t gaming, it’s gambling.
And players are expecting more fallout from this, especially with early reports that EA is having a similar microtransaction system in UFC 3. Will it cause even more harm? We’ll have to see.
