Photo via WikimediaCommons
Star Wars Battlefront II’s development has come to a halt as the team is moved to work on the next Battlefield game.
In 2017, Star Wars Battlefront II came into this world and could be called the most influential game of the later 2010s. It has influenced the way developers and publishers have viewed monetization in a way that has definitely benefited the industry in a way that no other game could have.
Its ties to the popular franchise, Star Wars, and their predatory monetization are the two elements that, when combined, led to the cacophony of disaster and responses. Some claimed that the monetization wasn’t that bad and was adamant that there were no changes needed for the game. Those people were delighted to hear that EA initially agreed with their now infamous post on the platform Reddit.
“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.”
This soon garnered so much negative press that it became the most downvoted post in all of Reddit history. Then, governments across the globe began to look into loot boxes and their harm to children.
That all aside, the game soon began getting updates that slowly improved the game from a global symbol of hatred, corruption and greed to a fairly enjoyable game toward the end with the improvements made to both the gameplay and the monetization.
With the completion of their last update, Battle on Scarif, which added a number of maps, cosmetics and an offline solo mode to the game, the developers from Star Wars Battlefront II are now being moved to work on the next Battlefield title that is set to release between 2021 and 2022.
It is difficult to say what will become of this franchise. There is definitely money to be made from creating another. However, it would be difficult to say if people are willing to risk yet another Battlefront game. Even the first Battlefront game was marred by controversy by the lack of free updates that the community was promised when they released an expansion pack that customers had to pay for.
As a person who has been watching this story for a significant portion of time, I would be interested in seeing another game. If not for its gameplay, at least to witness the adaptation of their marketing and monetization that they have learned since 2017.
Edward Park is a second-year BSED English major in the writings track. EP909756@wcupa.edu