Star Wars Battlefront II Reddit AMA fails to quell community worries about lootboxes

We like to try and keep a positive outlook on things here at VideoGamer.com, but last night’s developer AMA held on Reddit in the wake of the recent furore around the game’s microtransactions doesn’t appear to have done much to ease the minds of players of Star Wars Battlefront II.

Participating in the AMA were John Wasilczyk, executive producer on the game, design director Dennis Brannvall and Paul Keslin, multiplayer producer at EA DICE. On the thorny subject of the amount of time required to unlock heroes, Wasilczyk said that DICE had ‘seen the speculation about how long it takes players to earn things – but our averages based on the Play First trial are much faster than what’s out there.’

‘We’re committed to making progression a fun experience for all of our players. Nothing should feel unattainable and if it does, we’ll do what it takes to make sure it’s both fun and achievable.’

When pressed on how the system appears to be negatively affecting critical reception to the game, John did promise that ‘We’re going to continue adjusting the crate systems, content, and progression mechanics to hit a point that gives players a great, balanced experience at all skill levels.’

Speaking on the subject of the low credit rewards and caps on players earning credits offline, Keslin responded: ‘As we want to let players earn Credits offline via a more relaxed game mode, we needed to also find a way to make sure it wouldn’t be exploited in a way that would impact Multiplayer. Because of that we made the decision to limit the number of Credits earned to stop potential abuse.’

The team also stated in closing the AMA that they were ‘incredibly saddened by the negative response from you, the community on Reddit about the game. In-fact, we hated it, we truly did, because we want to make a game that you love. We’ve made a really cool, fun and beautiful game but it was overshadowed by issues with the progression system. We will fix this.’

You can read the full AMA here if you fancy, but if you’d like to know our thoughts on the game, including opinions on the progression system and how badly it does or doesn’t effect the experience, Alice’s review in progress is right over this way.