Microtransactions Temporarily Removed From 'Star Wars Battlefront II'

The saga continues for Star Wars Battlefront II. On the night before its launch, DICE announced that it will temporarily disable the ability to use real-world money as a way to buy crates. For now, the only way to get new abilities and weapons is by participating in matches.

The announcement came through a blog post from DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson. In addition to acknowledging the fanbase’s anger at the game’s microtransaction and progression mechanics, he wrote that the studio will continue to work and make the appropriate changes to Star Wars Battlefront II. You can read his full statement below.

"Thank you to everyone in our community for being the passionate fans that you are.Our goal has always been to create the best possible game for all of you – devoted Star Wars fans and game players alike. We’ve also had an ongoing commitment to constantly listen, tune and evolve the experience as it grows. You’ve seen this with both the major adjustments, and polish, we have made over the past several weeks.But as we approach the worldwide launch, it's clear that many of you feel there are still challenges in the design. We’ve heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages. And we’ve heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn’t get this right.We hear you loud and clear, so we’re turning off all in-game purchases. We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning. This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay. The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we’ve made changes to the game. We’ll share more details as we work through this.We have created a game that is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Star Wars Battlefront II is three times the size of the previous game, bringing to life a brand new Star Wars story, space battles, epic new multiplayer experiences across all three Star Wars eras, with more free content to come. We want you to enjoy it, so please keep your thoughts coming. And we will keep you updated on our progress."

Fans finally get their wish of a Star Wars title free of any microtransactions, but it will come back. Gabrielson mentioned that the use of real money to buy crystals, which are then used to purchase crates will be available “at a later date.” This future implementation will only happen after DICE makes other changes to the main gameplay experience.

Gabrielson’s post comes days after players discovered the amount of time required to play and earn enough credits to unlock Darth Vader. This caused outrage throughout the community, and then DICE lowered the credits required to purchase the high-end heroes and villains by 75%. In addition, the studio held an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit so players could address their concerns. However, most fans weren’t satisfied with the developers’ responses.

The decision to temporarily remove the crystal system could be seen as DICE’s last-ditch effort to persuade more people to buy the game. Without the microtransactions, everyone should be on even ground when it comes to combat. DICE’s real test comes when it will bring back the crystal currency. Based on the new plans, fans could continue to keep playing even with the option to use real-world money in the game, but many players will still see the return of the dreaded microtransaction mechanics.