Star Wars Battlefront 2’s egregious sins with aggressive monetization and overbearing use of loot boxes have become widely known across the industry by this point. Since the controversy went down, though, developers DICE and publishers EA seem to have been taking steps toward fixing the game. They did, of course, remove many of the elements that had drawn so much criticism to begin with, but have also gone on to support the game with constant new content updates, including new heroes, new missions and locations, changes to in-game economy in response to feedback, and of course, balancing changes to make sure that the playing experience remains stable.
According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, these efforts have allowed the game to overcome its initial missteps – which he admits were by no means small ones – to finally be able to display its strong core as a game itself. Over time, according to Wilson, Battlefront 2 has overcome early hurdles to become a stronger game, and now enjoys “really strong player sentiment”, which he expects will continue for the foreseeable future.
“I think that at the end of the day, we’ve got to create the right games and no matter what’s going on in the marketplace, we have to create great games,” said Wilson during EA’s most recent investors call. “I think Star Wars Battlefront 2, it’s kind of hard to see through the midst of this, but on balance, Battlefront 2 was a great game.
“We made some missteps in the context of progression and monetization, which actually clouded what was otherwise a really great game and with the ongoing commitment to the studio and community, it’s now a really strong game with really strong player sentiment and we expect that it will continue to do well.
“We should have had that done at launch, but we are a learning organization and we’ve continued to support that community.”
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Last year, it joined the Vault for EA Access.