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EA's defence of Star Wars Battlefront 2 progression is now Reddit's most downvoted comment

EA's defence of Star Wars Battlefront 2 progression is now Reddit's most downvoted comment

Gamers are far from impressed with EA and its upcoming Star Wars Battlefront 2.

The publishing giant faced a backlash over the implementation of loot boxes and how this affected player progression following the sci-fi shooter’s beta. EA said it was revisiting how this all worked, but now players in EA Access’ scheme have access to the title and things have not improved for the company.

A comment from an official EA Reddit account is now the most downvoted the platform has ever seen - at the time of writing it has been downvoted 154,000 times. This was replying to a thread where someone was outraged that they paid $80 to unlock Darth Vader as a playable character. The entire thread is more or less rage at the amount of grind that players need to put in unlock new content.

“The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes,” EACommunityTeam wrote.

“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.”

EA hasn’t exactly had the best few weeks when it comes to PR; the firm faced flak for closing Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline maker Visceral Games, with fans then lamenting the publisher’s purchase of Titanfall studio Respawn games.

It’s a shame as EA really had turned its reputation around; once - hyperbolically - called the Most Hated Company in America, the company’s ‘player first’ mantra, which resulted in events like its EA Play showcase and the release of follow-ups to cult hits like Mirror’s Edge was servicing it well. For a brief moment, the company seemed down to earth and ready to put consumers first; the perception would now be that this has reversed somewhat.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.