EA slashes Star Wars Battlefront II hero costs in response to backlash

Since Star Wars Battlefront II recently entered its early trial period via EA Access, EA has received quite a bit of backlash over the sheer amount of in-game credits (and, subsequently, time) it takes to unlock some of the most iconic hero characters from the Star Wars universe. One redditor, for example, worked out that it would take around 40 hours to unlock a single hero.

Now, EA has taken to a new blog post to respond to the negative feedback, promising a 75 percent drop in the number of credits required to unlock the game's "top heroes." From EA:

Making games great comes from regular tuning. As one example, today we're making a substantial change based on what we've seen during the Play First trial. There's been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes, especially Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning. We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it's clear that more changes were needed.

So, 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.

EA goes on to note that it will continue to make changes based on feedback going forward.

The blog post comes after an initial response from EA on reddit, in which EA's community team stated that the process of unlocking heroes was intended "to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes." The comment has since gone on to become the most downvoted comment in reddit history.

The controversy over hero unlocks and microtransactions mars what otherwise appears to be a solid game. Check out our in-progress review for more of our early thoughts on Star Wars Battlefront II ahead of its November 17 release.

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