Star Wars Battlefront II Unlockable Heroes Controversy

Overview

Star Wars Battlefront II Unlockable Heroes Controversy refers to a massive online backlash to Electronic Arts' decision to require players to grind for up to 40 hours in order to collect enough in-game currency to unlock certain heroes in the game Star Wars Battlefront II.

Background

On November 11th, Redditor TheHotterPotato submitted a spreadsheet revealing it would take 40 hours to unlock various heros in the upcoming game Star Wars Battlefront II. In response to the post, the official EACommunityTeam Reddit account replied that acquiring heroes through credits was intended to "provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment." On November 12th, 2017, Redditor MBMMaverick submitted a post to /r/StarWarsBattlefront^[13] titled "Seriously? I paid 80$ to have Vader locked?". Within 24 hours, the post gained over 69,100 points (88% upvoted) and 2,900 comments. In the comments section, the EACommunityTeam Reddit account responded to the complaint (shown below). Over the next day, the comment received a score of negative 394,000, becoming the most down-voted comment in Reddit history.^[1]

"The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can."

Developments

On November 13th, Redditor Unwanted_Commentary submitted a screenshot of the comment along with a faked followup post in which EACommunityTeam says "edit: We also now choose to live as gay men," parodying Kevin Spacey's response to a sexual assault allegation (shown below, left). Over the next 11 hours, the post garnered more than 31,100 points (92% upvoted) and 550 comments on /r/dankmemes.^[2] The same day, Redditor HitlerDabsOnJews posted a "Who Would Win?" image macro pitting Reddit against the EA logo labeled as "one greedy boi" (shown below, right).^[3] Also on November 13th, Redditor TheMadPuma submitted a post titled "Can we please boycott Star Wars Battlefront 2" to /r/gaming,^[4] where it gained upwards of 14,800 points (89% upvoted) and 1,400 comments in three hours.

On November 15th, Redditor MightyTeaRex submitted a photoshopped Electronic Arts logo with a lock added to the circle along with the slogan "EA Games / Go Fuck Yourself" (shown below, left). Within six hours, the post gathered more than 40,700 points (90% upvoted) and 660 comments on /r/pcmasterrace.^[5] That same day, Redditor xaliber_skyrim posted an infographic encouraging viewers to tweet complaints to the @Disney Twitter feed that the Star Wars game was "promoting #gambling to children" (shown below, right). Within 16 hours, the post gained over 105,900 points (75% upvoted) and 6,700 comments on /r/gaming.^[15]

EA's Response

On November 13th, 2017, EA^[11] announced they would reduce the cost needed to unlock the "top heroes by 75%", requiring 15,000 credits to unlock Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and 10,000 credits for Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca and Leia Organa. That day, Twitter user @Stevivor^[12] tweeted that an EA representative confirmed that the reward for completing the campaign had been reduced from 20,000 to 5,000 credits "as a result of a reduction in in-game character unlock fees" (shown below).

AMA Thread

On November 15th, developers for the game participated in an "ask me anything" (AMA) thread on the /r/StarWarsBattlefront^[14] subreddit. In the thread, responses made by the developers were heavily downvoted and buried, leading moderators to linking their responses at the top of the comment section.

In-Game Purchase Suspension

On November 16th, Oskar Gababrielson, General Manager for DICE, made an announcement^[16] regarding the temporary suspension of in-game currency. The official EA Star Wars Twitter^[17] and Facebook^[18] pages also published links to the announcement, where they received over 16,000 and 8,500 thousand likes respectively within the hour. Additionally, Redditor AbdaIIicA posted the announcement to /r/gaming^[19] where it reached the top of the front page and received over 45,000 upvotes within the first hour.

News Media Coverage

On November 15th, 2017, CNBC^[6] published an article titled "Wall Street is getting worried social media outrage over EA's ‘Star Wars’ game may hurt sales," quoting Wall Street analyst Justin Post who said "We see recent controversies as a potential risk for unit sales vs buyside expectations, although EA has conservative estimates for Battlefront Live Services." The controversy was covered by many other news sites as well, including BBC,^[7] Polygon,^[8] Rolling Stone Magazine,^[23] Fortune^[9] and Kotaku.^[10] Coverage resumed the following day after the suspension of in-game currency. Articles were posted by most major news agencies including BBC,^[24] Telegraph,^[25] CBR,^[26] Forbes,^[27] Polygon,^[20] PC Gamer,^[21] and Business Insider.^[22]

Image Macros

Search Interest

External References