Amidst Controversy, EA Slashes Battlefront 2 Hero Costs

As you might recall, the news that it would take quite a bit of time for players to unlock heroes in Star Wars Battlefront II you know, the Star Wars staples that are half the reason anyone picks up the game was met with a mighty fierce anger by the community, who would later take EA's half-baked excuse about feeling rewarding and turn it into the most disliked post in Reddit history.

I mean, there's gamer rage, and then there's this.

Now, EA is a lot of things, but it's not blind. And with their hands tied by community outrage, they made a special announcement earlier today: they would be slashing the prices of heroes in the game by 75 percent. This means that unlocking Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker dropped from 60,000 credits to 15,000. Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa dropped from 40,000 to 10,000, and the game's original character (do not steal) Iden Versio is now only 5,000 credits.

That's a pretty big deal. From the blog post:

Since the start of the project, listening to fans has been important in making sure Star Wars Battlefront II is the very best experience for all of you. We've done this with the closed alpha, through the beta last month, and our Play First Trial. And we continue to make adjustments based on your feedback as the game launches worldwide this week. Listening, and providing choices in how you play, will always be our principle with Star Wars Battlefront II. We want to ensure the game is balanced and fun both today and for years into the future.

EA then decided to take things a step forward and announced that they would be doing a Reddit AMA on Wednesday, giving people the chance to gloat in their face and maybe complain about some other stuff the game is doing wrong, like the fact that it's still pay to win. And they will complain: just one quick glance at the Battlefield Reddit and you can see that there is still a great deal of well-justified resentment out there...

But regardless of all that, it's good to see that EA is listening, but also that gamers can still affect change. Think on this next time you consider how hopeless things are, and don't give up the fight!

Update: According to some news sources, the reward for the campaign has been decreased by 75 percent as well, shifting the amount of credits earned from 20,000 to 5,000. However, this is to reflect the cost of unlocking Iden, who costs 5,000.