And as a result, we had to take very quick and drastic actions to turn everything off, and we’ve since worked and redesigned the progression system. “And like a lot of other games on the market, to be able to afford to do that we had an idea of getting returns from that. “We had the intent that was designed for us to have more people play it over a longer period of time,” explains Söderlund of the decision to include loot boxes. “ made it very clear that we can’t afford to make similar mistakes.” Many players saw the game’s loot boxes - where you could spend real money for a randomized item that could directly impact multiplayer competition - as a way of encouraging spending cash on in-game success. But things get murkier when real-money upgrades impact the way the game actually plays, especially for multiplayer experiences, as was the initial structure of Battlefront II. Some games get around this by offering mostly cosmetic upgrades, like Blizzard’s consistently popular shooter Overwatch, or the hottest game of the moment, Fortnite: Battle Royale. (Last month Shadow of War removed microtransactions, while Destiny 2 continues to deal with a disgruntled community six months from launch.) As the business model and player expectations have changed for large-scale games, many developers have struggled to figure out how to balance creating a massive, ongoing experience with earning ongoing revenue to support that.
Other blockbuster titles like Destiny 2 and Middle-earth: Shadow of War were subject to similar, if less vitriolic, controversies for their inclusion of loot boxes and various microtransactions. “We can shy away from it and pretend like it didn’t happen, or we can act responsibly and realize that we made some mistakes, and try to rectify those mistakes and learn from them.” Star Wars Battlefront II.īattlefront II isn’t the only high-profile game to experience this kind of backlash, of course. “I’d be lying to you if I said that what’s happened with Battlefront and what’s happened with everything surrounding loot boxes and these things haven’t had an effect on EA as a company and an effect on us as management,” he explains. And it’s been an experience that will help shape how EA operates moving forward. How the legal battle around loot boxes will change video games foreverĪccording to Patrick Söderlund, a long-time EA executive who just yesterday was made the company’s chief design officer, the last six months post-release have been an important learning experience for the company.
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