After having met with a frivolous backlash from the community and a feral debate on Reddit, EA has finally decided to step down and abolish all in-game purchases. In what seems to be a decisive victory of the people over the notions of a multi-national corporation led by a notorious reputation, EA tweeted out the following with the intention of apologising:
Today, we turned off in-game purchases for #StarWarsBattlefrontII. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Read the full update: https://t.co/asGASaYXVp pic.twitter.com/vQSOmsWRgk
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) November 17, 2017
DICE has formally confessed their mistakes and have turned off the in-game purchase system as it was ‘potentially giving players unfair advantage’. It addition, they have also stated that they have heard the community and will now ‘spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning’. Further more, the option to buy crystals has been drawn out and all progression now has to be earned through gameplay. However, things tend to turn ugly as one goes down the second para of the notice. The option to buy crystals, which they said they have turned off will become available ‘at a later date’, only after they have made changes to the game. This means, that the change implemented is only ‘temporary’.
While it is common for the people to condemn this move, micro-transactions are present in every online game and an acceptable medium of purchase for as long as the items are are at a reasonable price and not served in loot boxes/drop boxes with close to no chance of knowing what would come out of it.