Battlefront II devs cut cost of in-game unlocks 75% in response to fan outcry

The team behind Electronic Arts' upcoming Battlefront II published a blog post today announcing they'll be lowering the cost players will pay (in virtual currency) to unlock specific heroes in the game by 75 percent.

It's a direct response to some fan outcry over the weekend about the game's virtual currency economy, and it may help give fellow devs a bit more insight into what players are willing to tolerate when it comes to rewards in a full-priced multiplayer game.

While the game doesn't launch until Friday, a brouhaha erupted over the weekend after a player who had early access to the game (via EA's Access program) published data to Reddit which suggested it would take an average of 40 hours of time spent playing multiplayer to earn enough virtual currency (60,000 credits) to unlock a top-tier hero character like Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker.

Yesterday, someone representing EA's community management team responded to the Reddit thread by thanking the community for the feedback and explaining that "the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. We selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch."

The same account made a similar reply in another thread complaining about the pricing scheme; that reply has since become the most unpopular post (in terms of "downvotes" to "upvotes") in the history of Reddit. At least one person who claims to be with EA (and who has since locked down his Twitter account) stated publicly this morning that he'd received "7 death threats and over 1,600 personal attacks" as a result of the fracas.

"There’s been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes," reads an excerpt of today's company blog post. "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 percent."

The post goes on to make it clear that the dev team plans to continue tweaking the game over time, making a point of celebrating how quickly a live game like Battlefront II can be updated to respond to player feedback.

This echoes the team's efforts last month to rework how the game's loot box system works after players of the Battlefront II open beta complained that the loot boxes (which could effectively be purchased with real money) unbalanced the multiplayer game in favor of people who spent more money.