Star Wars Battlefront 2 won’t offer paid microtransactions in-game when it launches. Electronic Arts confirmed in a blog post that it has removed “all in-game purchases” for the time being, following a week of furious criticism regarding Battlefront 2’s economy and progression system.
Oskar Gabrielson, the general manager of development studio DICE, acknowledged widespread backlash for the game’s economy at launch. Player feedback inspired the last-minute change, he wrote. Instead of incentivizing players to purchase crystals in order to unlock ability upgrades and new characters, the game’s progression system will allow players to collect them at no cost at launch.
We first noticed that microtransactions had been removed from Battlefront 2 shortly before the official statement’s release. Although the in-game store still lists prices in crystals alongside loot crates, selecting the option to buy more of the currency returns a blank screen, as Polygon found in the Xbox One version.
Crystals are still listed for sale on the Xbox Store, however. On the PlayStation Store, however, both the Battlefront 2 Starter Pack (which includes 1,500 crystals) and 4,400 crystals pack have been removed entirely. They’ve also been pulled from Electronic Arts’ Origin storefront, which is used with the Windows PC version.
The game, which has been mired in major controversy all week, is due out tomorrow, Nov. 17. The lead up to the game’s release saw EA and DICE make drastic adjustments to Battlefront 2’s in-game economy and take to Reddit to ease players concerns. The latter effort didn’t go well for the company and resulted in the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. Battlefront 2 has been available in limited release on Windows PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 for several days.
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