10 Times Publishers Sabotaged Their Own Video Games
7. Everything About Battlefront II's Launch - EA
Another disasterclass from EA this time, and another that stems from a game set in a galaxy far, far away.
As mentioned previously, the first Star Wars: Battlefront didn't manage to evade controversy. Although praised for its gameplay and graphical detail, DICE's reboot boasted a complete dearth of content, exacerbated by (and undoubtedly linked to) the fact that additional content was locked behind a $50.00 season pass.
Still, the game weathered the storm - and DICE seemed to learn their lessons for the sequel. It included a single-player story, set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, long demanded Clone Wars content, space battles and a class system to boot. Unfortunately it also featured a debilitating progression system that revolved almost entirely around random loot-box drops, which could - of course - be purchased with real-life currency.
The backlash to the system became one of the biggest to hit the industry in years, and it meant that Battlefront II - an obviously brilliant game, microtransactions aside - took years to hit its stride.
DICE's sequel has now mounted one of the all time great video game comebacks, but to those who aren't a part of the Battlefront community, that launch day controversy is impossible to ignore.