Star Wars Battlefront 2’s loot boxes generated an intense controversy and heavy backlash, thanks to the game’s egregious and abusive utilization of pay to win mechanics governed by RNG payouts combined with its utilization of one of the most beloved properties in the world. EA and DICE have since backtracked on this entirely, and the new upcoming progression system will be loot box and microtransactions free, with those being limited to cosmetics only.
But what does Jade Raymond, a well respected and acclaimed veteran of the game industry, who previously headed up Assassin’s Creed at Ubisoft, and is now working at EA Motive on a new IP (after having worked on the single player portion of Battlefront 2 last year), think of the loot boxes, and how they were received?
“Well look, I mean, the team worked really hard on that game and I’ve gotta say there were obviously some big learnings to take away and the team at DICE has been continuing to work really hard,” Raymond said to Dean Takahashi of Games Beat. “EA is a learning company, so we are really focused on how we improve and obviously don’t make those kinds of same mistakes again.”
Which is kind of a non-answer, but I guess I appreciate that she has to toe the corporate line. I can also only hope that she is right, and EA won’t try to repeat the same stunt again—outside of its sports games, of course, because you bet that FIFA 19’s Ultimate Team Mode will be loaded to the brim with RNG microtransactions.
