Disney tells EA to back off on the microtransactions

[CT Phipps]

This is fascinating.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...nsactions-after-disney-put-its-foot-down.aspx

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz has been following the twists and turns of EA's changes with Star Wars: Battlefront II, mentioning that Disney executives contacted EA to figure out the furor over Battlefront II.

The tweet points to an article Fritz wrote about the subject. In the tweet, he clarifies that Disney’s head of consumer products and interactive media, Jimmy Pitaro, sent a letter to EA outlining Disney and chief executive officer Bob Iger's concerns with the way EA was handling the game and the public perception of it. As mainstream media outlets began conflating the Star Wars license with gambling and outrage, it seems Disney began to take issue with Battlefront II being in the news for these reasons.

EA announced last night that they were pulling microtransactions from Battlefront II due to a wave of negative reactions due to its perceived pay-to-win progression that lead to mainstream attention from outlets like CNN. The publisher has clarified that the removal is only temporary and will return in a different, though still progression-based, form at a later date.

Star Wars: Battlefront II released today on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

 

[Risewild]

It is also interesting that EA had to reassure the investors that turning off the microtransactions wouldn't change the profit they will get.
http://www.pcgamer.com/ea-tells-inv...s-microtransactions-will-not-affect-earnings/
When gaming companies are owned by people who don't even know what a game is supposed to be, this is what happens.

 

[Mr Fish]

I love this trainwreck. Sadly, I doubt either party will learn from it.

Disney might be hesitant to allow EA another try but considering Disney most likely wanting to bank on the big bucks what other colossi are there?

EA? They tried twice to still peddle the damn bullshit. First by lowering the cost of heroes but also lowering the rewards and limiting how much you can earn in Arcade Mode and the second time they said "Suuuuure, we'll take them out and uh... Look them over and uh.... Reimplement them at a later date"; Which means that they want players to think that they've stepped down on the whole thing so it'll drive in sales only so they can reimplement something most likely as atrocious in the future when people have already bought the game.

And the players? There's been so many things to be outraged about before. So many times that publishers/developers have fucked up and the gaming community has called them out and yet over time the hype machine of distrust and ideals slows down and they come to accept the bullshit. Remember quest arrows being a big deal? There's no big outrage over them anymore. Remember day 1 DLC? Yeah that's called pre-order exclusives now. Oh but people still call out Pre-orders! And apparently it has no effect cause people still pre-order the damn things. Fucking over a game series cause hey they gotta go with what is popular and so they mutate it into something it is not meant to be? REvil 7 was a hit IIRC, and that's no REvil, that's just Outlast reskinned.

While I love this trainwreck I am under no illusion that this somehow is going to change anything. Microtransactions are sticking around, they just have to find out different ways to peddle them to go under the radar. Or just weather the gamers out, just like they've done with everything else.

 

[Alphons]

That's the worst part of all of it- MICROTRANSACTIONS WILL STRIKE BACK.

 

[CT Phipps]

Belgium has classified loot boxes as gambling and is going to petition the EU to have it done Europe-wide.