Battlefront 2: Today's Reddit War With EA

Star Wars fans are not happy with Electronic Arts. Even though Battlefront 2 hasn't officially launched yet, the early access period that comes along with some versions of the game has given players a look at what's in store. Between loot boxes and locked features, those players have a lot to complain about.

One such angry thread went up on Reddit yesterday, complaining about the fact that Darth Vader – one of the most iconic villains in the history of film – is locked to new players. Instead of being able to play Vader right from the start, players need to grind out credits and purchase him with the in-game currency. The player in question thought it was ridiculous they paid $80 only to discover that Vader was locked and took to Reddit to share their discontent.

It gets worse when we look elsewhere on Reddit. One user by the name of TheHotterPotato took the time to do the math behind Battlefront 2's unlock system, figuring out that it would take most players roughly 40 hours of gameplay to earn the 60,000 credits needed to unlock a new hero or villain to play as in the game. Those credits are also used to purchase the loot boxes Battlefront 2's progression system seems to relies on so heavily, so players who want to both earn more heroes and buy loot boxes for further unlocks will have to invest a significant amount of time into the game.

EA's attempts to justify these systems have been met with anger and derision from the gamers on the Battlefront 2 subreddit. In reply to the original post concerning the status of Darth Vader, EA said that the "intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes." Seeing right through the canned response that this is, Reddit users have showered that post in downvotes – at the time of this writing, it's at 388,000 downvotes and still falling.

That's more than enough to make EA's justification for these time sink mechanics the most downvoted post in Reddit history. For now, EA says that it will look to make changes to the progression system as soon as it can, but when those changes will actually arrive is anyone's guess. For its sake, hopefully those changes come soon, because gamers are not pleased about Battlefront 2.

If, of course, you'd like to see changes implemented yourself, the best thing you can do is commit to not buying the game. Judging from the reaction thus far, it's clear that EA is overreaching significantly with loot boxes and progression in Battlefront 2, but if people keep buying the game (regardless of whether or not those same people purchase loot boxes), it signals to EA that it can get away with this.

We'll see if these complaints bring about any meaningful change in a timely manner. Electronic Arts definitely doesn't look good here, but as long as it's still making money hand-over-fist with the Star Wars franchise, it won't change the way Battlefront 2's progression works. Of course, if you need your Star Wars fix in the meantime, there's always 2005's Battlefront 2, which was just brought back to life by Disney, is entirely loot box free, and can be had for a mere $10 on Steam.