10 Exact Moments Hated Video Games Were Saved

You could teach a class on how NOT to handle a PR disaster with how EA handled the fallout of the initial release of Star Wars: Battlefront 2.

EA's monopoly on all Star Wars games already had fans bristling for years, so when Battlefront 2 hit the shelves with its game breaking loot boxes, there was blood in the water. Now, before, lootboxes were mostly kept to cosmetic changes. But the lootboxes in BF2 granted actual advantages in game, giving more incentive to spend money on them. Combine that with their completely random nature, and what you get is basically a slot machine with extra steps.

This was all that the governments of the world - particularly the ones that outlaw gambling of any form - needed to drag EA to court all across Europe. And, of course, since this is EA, naturally they only dug a deeper and deeper hole for themselves the longer this debacle went on.

Eventually, it got so bad that DICE managed to finally wriggle free of EA for just a moment and remove all pay-to-win mechanics from the game. Which brought back people long enough for them to then add in some QoL improvements that kept fans there.

Since, shock and horror, once you remove all the scummy gambling stuff, Battlefront 2 is AMAZING, fan response to the game did a complete 180 almost overnight.