10 Biggest Risks In Video Games (That Didn't Pay Off)
2. The Microtransactions Are Strong With Star Wars Battlefront II
Another huge IP, another developer completely fumbling it and ruining it for everyone for the sake of making some money.
When EA got the Star Wars license, people were, understandably, worried. EA had developed a reputation for money over quality at this point, and for them to get their hands on Star Wars, which is an IP guaranteed to print money, was very concerning indeed.
Star Wars Battlefront, a reboot of the game of the same name from several years ago, was released in 2015. It was a decent game which allowed everyone to fulfil their fantasy of taking part in some of Star Wars' most iconic battle scenes.
Then came the sequel. Battlefront II looked fantastic, but under the surface, it was an absolute mess of grinding and trying to get people to invest in microtransactions. Let us not forget that this game launched with Darth Vader himself locked under an absolutely massive grind or a microtransaction purchase to unlock him quicker.
To say that the backlash to the game's microtransactions was huge is doing it a disservice. The Reddit post, where the community team of EA tried to smooth things over, was the most downvoted in the history of the platform.
Since then, developers DICE had to completely revamp the game's economy to remove all of the microtransaction crap, but the damage was done.