Even after the removal of Star Wars Battlefront 2’s controversial microtransactions, with the purchase of Crystals as premium currency removed, EA doesn’t expect this to have a “material impact” on its fiscal year 2018 financial guidance.
In a recent securities filing, the company noted that, “On November 16, 2017, Electronic Arts Inc. (“EA”) announced in blog on its website that it will turn off all in-game purchases for the Star Wars Battlefront 2 title until further notice. This change is not expected to have a material impact on EA’s fiscal year 2018 financial guidance.”
This basically boils down to the fact that actual earning results and sales will not be affected from EA’s initial projects despite microtransactions temporarily suspended. Skeptical fans theorize that microtransactions could return within that period or at least sooner than expected while other believe that EA didn’t bank on premium currency purchase that heavily.
Of course, it’s important to note EA’s wording when it says that it’s not “expected” to have an impact. For all we know, EA could express utter surprise when the fiscal year is up at how poorly the game has sold despite its “expectations”. Regardless, stay tuned for more information and read up on how Disney pressured EA into suspending microtransactions even as it vetoed a hero-based gameplay model and cosmetic rewards akin to Overwatch.