EA Reduces Credits For Unlocking Star Wars Battlefront II Heroes After Epic reddit Meltdown

For example, the amount of credits necessary to unlock Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker stands at 60,000 credits. Actually completing the campaign "only" nets you 20,000 credits. In order to unlock these characters for "free", you have to devote roughly 40 hours to the game each, or fork over some hard-earned real cash.

While many games, like Overwatch, rely on microtransactions, they mainly involve skins and usually don't affect actual gameplay. Battlefront II's microtransactions, however, can have a profound impact on gameplay. Needless to say, gamers have revolted at such tomfoolery.

In a post to reddit, one person who bought Battlefront II showed anger that after paying $80 for the game that Darth Vader was locked. "This is a joke. I'll be contacting EA support for a refund," wrote MBMMaverick. "I can't even playing f**king Darth Vader?!?!? Disgusting. This age of 'micro-transactions' has gone WAY too far. Leave it to EA though to stretch the boundaries."

As many gamers with similar viewpoints started to rally around the OP, an EA representative decided to chime in, and it was all downhill from there. The EACommunityTeam wrote:

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.

The comment thread then blew up, with the post from EACommunityTeam racking up a staggering 664,000 downvotes -- a record for reddit. The venom spewed by gamers was incredibly toxic, and the thread has subsequently been locked.

Following the outcry, EA wrote a rather lengthy blog post indicating that it is continually looking at ways to "ensure the game is balanced and fun both today and for years into the future." To this end, it has made changes to the number of credits necessary to unlock key players in the game:

We’re reducing the amount of credits needed to unlock the top heroes by 75%. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now be available for 15,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa for 10,000 credits; and Iden at 5,000 credits. Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players. It's a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly. It will be live today, with an update that is getting loaded into the game.

It must be mentioned, however, that the amount of credits rewarded for completing the campaign have also been reduced by 75 percent, from 20,000 credits to 5,000 credits. So, while Iden Versio can be unlocked right away after completing the campaign, you will still have to put a lot of time and effort into unlocking "heavy hitters" like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca.

Given all the uproar surrounding Star Wars Battlefront II microtransactions, many have indicated that they intend to ask for a refund for the game in protest. While the refund option was available earlier this week for customers, it appears that EA has now taken the step to remove the refund button, drawing even more ire and humorous responses. "You have to pay to unlock the refund option. It's 3 easy payments of $29.99," wrote redditor ltrkar.