Last night’s Battlefront II AMA left us with few answers

This has not been a great week for the folks over at DICE. Star Wars Battlefront II has been dragged through the mud online due to its controversial monetisation and progression system. As a result, some folks from EA and DICE organized a Battlefront II AMA on Reddit last night, but unfortunately, few questions were actually answered.

Hundreds of questions were posted to the AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit last night, around 30 of them were responded to. Many answers seem to boil down to ‘just keep playing, and we'll make changes as you go'.

When asked about the time required to unlock new content, executive producer John Wasilczyk said that while EA has “seen the speculation”, it's internal numbers indicate that unlocks should be happening much faster than what's being reported. Those internal statistics weren't shared,

Aside from that, the developers expressed that they are “committed to making progression a fun experience” for all players and that “nothing should feel unattainable”. As for the current daily credit cap on ‘Arcade Mode', DICE seems to be preparing to ensure that “players can continue to progress without daily limits”.

In one of the more honest responses throughout the AMA, one member of the DICE team touched on the concerns surrounding Battlefront II's loot box system:

“As for concerns surrounding loot boxes, I think crates can be a fun addition as long as you don't feel forced to engage with them in order to progress. I feel that's where the issue is with our game right now and that's where we'll look to solve as quickly as we can.”

No specific steps have been laid out to address community concerns, but if you were hoping for Star Cards to be removed from the game, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. Instead, EA and DICE seem determined to “continue adjusting values” to make progression and unlocks feel like less of a grind.

KitGuru Says: If Star Cards could just be replaced by cosmetics, then most of Battlefront II's issues would be solved. Gameplay affecting microtransactions were always going to be a tough sell, regardless of whether or not they can be unlocked without spending real world cash. At this point though, it seems like it might be a tad too late for any major changes, particularly given that the game's launch needs to tie in with The Last Jedi's theatrical release.

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