EA Changes Its Tune on Loot System for Star Wars Battlefront 2

EA and DICE have responded to beta players' concerns about the loot system in Star Wars Battlefront 2. During the beta, it was discovered that progression to the best items in the game would require purchasing loot crates. The outcry at this news was heard loud and clear by publisher and developer resulting in a new blog post detailing a number of changes to the system in time for launch later this month.

• Epic Star Cards are the highest tier of Star Cards available at launch. During beta, these were contained in loot boxes, but will be removed from them in time for launch. They will only be available through crafting. The only caveat is that pre-order, deluxe or starter packs will still have them.
• Crafting an Epic Star Card will require a certain expertise level in crafting in order to create them. There will be no way to "grind everything up into crafting materials and immediately use them to get super powerful Star Cards". 
• Weapons, barring a few, will be obtainable through game play and reaching certain milestones.
• Class-specific gear and items are unlocked through game play.

During a financial meeting with investors yesterday, EA and DICE spoke to the assembly about the backlash from the beta community. CEO Andrew Wilson said:

There was of course the conversation around loot boxes, which is not a Star Wars Battlefront II specific conversation, but more one that the industry is having with players across the global community. And we are engaged in that conversation, engaging with our players on a daily basis as we think about that.

There's really two conversations going on there. One is about value. And in a world where a player pays $60 for a game, will there also be value in the ongoing digital ecosystem that comes for many years? When we think about value, we look at Star Wars Battlefront II and we say, we start with a game that's nearly three times the size of the last game. We take what much of the content that would've been gated behind a Season Pass, and we offer that to the community for free. So we feel very good about the overall value proposition focused on keeping the player community together.

You can check out the full post on the Star Wars Battlefront 2 site and find out more at the links above.

Thanks, Slapshot1188!