With just a few weeks before launch, EA is making some pretty magnificent changes to Battlefront 2's highly dramatized and reviled loot crate microtransaction system.
Dare I say it... the changes are quite positive.
- Epic Star Cards, the highest tier of Star Cards available at launch, have been removed from Crates. To help keep everyone on a level playing field, these Star Cards will primarily be available through crafting, with the exception of special Epic Star Cards available through pre-order, deluxe, and starter packs.
- You’ll need to reach a certain rank to craft upgraded Star Cards. You won’t be able to buy a bunch of Crates, grind everything up into crafting materials, and immediately use them to get super powerful Star Cards. You can only upgrade the ability to craft higher tier Star Cards by ranking up through playing the game.
- Weapons are locked behind specific milestones. While a select few will be found in Crates, the rest can only be attained by play. Want to unlock a new weapon for your Heavy? Play as a Heavy and you’ll gain access to the class’s new weapons.
- Class-specific gear and items can be unlocked by playing as them. As you progress through your favorite class, you’ll hit milestones granting you class-specific Crates. These will include a mix of Star Cards and Crafting Parts to benefit your class’s development.
That's no moon small list of insignificant changes. That's a major reversal on much of people's big complaints about players being able to drop tons of cash on loot crates and dominate on day one.
Bottom line, you'll still be able to benefit greatly from buying crates, but not until you've played a lot and have earned the ability to benefit from them.
That's a fair trade, in my opinion. Sure, I still don't like loot crates. I'd rather them not be in the game at all. But given what we were going to have, this is a really nice change.
Well that’s a surprisingly good move by them, so yay. All-cosmetic micro transactions (like Overwatch) is the way to go if you don’t want to piss fans of the western hemisphere off.
Yea, agreed. The onus is then on them to make a game that people would want to drop money on looks. And they have the Star Wars brand to emphasize that cosmetic mojo.
While they’re not going that route (and probably won’t) at least it’s LESS p2w.
http://www.pcgamer.com/dauntless-is-getting-rid-of-loot-boxes/
This too. I called it in your post about hyperbole and loot boxes. This is just a trend that will hurt sales then reverse, and its gotten to that point. The loot box mechanic directly affected Shadow of Wars user review score and sales imo.
Absolutely. Same happened to F2P games. Took a while for the masses to realize it’s an inferior model, but it eventually carried a negative stigma where devs began advertising they’re NOT F2P.