A full on 75% reduction in cost.
EA has responded to the hero unlock controversy in Star Wars: Battlefront 2. After, as of this writing, their initial Reddit response is sitting at 497k downvotes, making it one of the most hated posts in the site’s history. Naturally, this has probably forced PR (or possibly Disney) to start yelling at them to control the damage. So, in an attempt to fix things, they’ve slashed the prices of unlockable heroes by 75%.
Since the start of the project, listening to fans has been important in making sure Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II is the very best experience for all of you. We’ve done this with the closed alpha, through the beta last month, and our Play First Trial. And we continue to make adjustments based on your feedback as the game launches worldwide this week. Listening, and providing choices in how you play, will always be our principle with Star Wars Battlefront II. We want to ensure the game is balanced and fun both today and for years into the future.
Making games great comes from regular tuning. As one example, today we’re making a substantial change based on what we’ve seen during the Play First trial. There’s been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes, especially Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning. We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it’s clear that more changes were needed.
So, we’re reducing the amount of credits needed to unlock the top heroes by 75%. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now be available for 15,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa for 10,000 credits; and Iden at 5,000 credits. Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players.
It’s a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly. It will be live today, with an update that is getting loaded into the game.
That’s a pretty big fix. But there’s more; they want to implement more of the features players have voiced support for:
We’ve also been listening to how much you’re loving features in the game (Starfighter Assault, 40 player MP battles, Darth Maul lightsaber throws, etc.) as well as what you haven’t liked. We know some of our most passionate fans, including those in our subreddit, have voiced their opinions, and we hear you. We’re making the changes to the credit levels for unlocking heroes and we’re going to keep making changes to improve the game experience over time. We welcome the conversation.
Furthermore, they’ve made the decision to set up a Reddit AMA with some of the key developers of the game. The AMA is scheduled this Wednesday, November 15th. And at least they’ve shown that they’re going to keep working on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 until it meets mass approval.