It wasn’t hidden at all. They literally said disabling microtransactions was temporary. They absolutely will turn them back on. Remains to be seen if they allow the pay2win stuff.
I don’t think they’ll wait 2 months, either.
Nor do I. Origin’s return policy is like a week, right? They will wait for initial sales rush and initial review period, then it’s back to normal.
I expect the refreshed microtransactions to have lower prices, certainly. Only question is if the P2W stuff is completely ripped out. I hope they do. It really is abhorrent.
I think EA/DICE were absolutely being sincere when they said they’d love to do cosmetic stuff in the loot boxes. I also believe that there are a number of hurdles to implementing them, one of which is the fact they have to get Lucas/Disney approval for any modifications to the characters. I think they’ll get there. They just need time.
That said, I’ll be really impressed if they totally rip out the progression system which depends on loot. I suspect they will tweak numbers and come up with some compromise system that doesn’t require them to start from scratch.
Heh. DICE was sincere, certainly. Nobody spends years of their life working on a product just to poison it with P2W. EA directed them to do so.
Cosmetic microtransactions are barely any better. I miss the MMO days when everyone paid $15 a month, and when you saw people run past you wearing Celestial Wings of Michael or whatever you would say to your friend ‘wow that guy must have no life, do you know how many hours it takes to unlock those?’. Whereas nowadays all you can say is ‘wow that guy spent $100.’ Sad!
Cosmetic microtransactions suck, because dev and content creation effort goes to making that stuff rather than enhancing the core game, but they are infinitely better than actual P2W.
Well put.
While I can’t comment on the current state or where it went afterwards, I know my friend was really irritated with Guild Wars 2 as he had done everything there was to do and all the GW2 team seemed to be doing was pumping out cosmetics that could be bought via crystals or whatever. He put up with it long enough to max every class, then bailed. I believe this was in the gap between release and when they reinvented themselves with the chapter content.
On the branding account, I agree. It’s not that Disney would care about a video game so much, it is rather that they have the best of IPs and they don’t want that tarnished. The stuff going on now reminds me of Nancy Kerrigan disappearing after the “this is so corny” line while sitting next to Mickey Mouse in a parade.
That said, I’m still holding for now as I expect micro transaction loot crates to come back and still push the line of acceptance, but just not quite as hard.
Also, I am sort of proud that we, the weak kneed gamers finally didn’t just take it. I mean, we might still roll over in the end, but at least this round is not as bad as the modern warfare boycott. :)
Like what happened with Mankind Divided, it may well be that the publisher pushed this stuff onto DICE for this game. In a strange, horrible way, I would love to see what would happen if a major developer, cooperating fully from day one with their publisher, crafted a AAA game from the ground up built around microtransactions, loot crates, and all of that. Hell, maybe there already is one, I don’t keep up as much as I used to. But an odd part of me wonders if, if it all is designed in from the start with full intentionality, something like this might actually work as a game and be palatable, no matter how philosophically questionable. Just a thought; I don’t actually want a game like that.
Of course EA pushed it on them. Was that ever in the slightest doubt?
Tons of AAA games are built around monetization, they just tend to be free to play so people accept it. Some are quite good, like Neverwinter.
I was going to rush out and buy this and now I’m totally on the fence. I had so much fun with Battlefield 1 that this seemed like a slam dunk. In that one there’s really no pay to play at all. It does take a while to unlock weapons, but that didn’t really bother me… Guess I’ll just keep an eye on this thread and cave a week or less later. ;) I need something to get me from playing PUBG nonstop.
Thanks. You could be right. I guess we may find out in the future.
Oh and for the record if I haven’t made it clear i think this whole loot box thing is fucking bullshit.
Just make a fun game and charge me what is fair to play the damn thing ffs.
Well, yes, I should have clarified, I’m talking about games sold at full price, sorry.
I spent the money on something else. This game is totally something I wanted, especially after the beta. I’ll at least wait til Christmas now. Sales -1.
Yep I just want the campaign.
Getting my ass handed to me in multiplayer, everyone who kills me has 3 profile cards already and seems to know all the choke points. D:
Yeah knowing the choke points is key. There are a handful of more open maps, but even then they get corridor and hangar-door-y eventually (like Hoth).
Yeah, an unlock everything super slow, choke point heavy game sounds terribad to me. Locker and Metro are my two least favorite BF maps, I quit out every time. No tactics, no strategy, no skill, just a meat grinder. If Battlefront 2 is this, I’m out forever.
Guess my annual New Year’s Day tradition of Batttlefront 2 Galactic Conquest will have to stand. Was going to replace it with this game but I’m no sucker. EA, change or whither and die.
I thought this game’s monetization was (ostensibly) because the season pass is free though? Obviously they thought they’d make more money this way compared to charging once for the next year’s worth of content.
Would rather pay for a season pass than sit through this drama.
It’s nice and all that they shut off crystal purchases, but everyone is still getting the same amount of credits. That needs to go up a bit.
If you aren’t saving up credits for heroes and you want crafting parts and cards, get hero crates with your credits. Then you can pick and choose what you want. But you need more credits. And levels.
I expect after the holiday sales rush that they’ll just flip the switch back on and nothing will have changed in the end. (Which is kind of stupid, really…even if you’re against buying crates…and I am…the progression is so slow that no one will be playing by the end of December anyway.)