The company behind the "Star Wars" franchise, Lucasfilm, has responded on the controversy surrounding the microtransactions in the recently released video game, "Star Wars: Battlefront II."
The company emphasized that the franchise has been and will continue to be for the fans. "Star Wars has always been about the fans--and whether it's Battlefront or any other Star Wars experience, they come first," said the company's spokesperson. "That's why we support EA's decision to temporarily remove in-game payments to address fan concerns."
Just hours before the official launch of the game last week, EA decided to pull the microtransactions feature from the game following a backlash from fans, who expressed concerns about the randomness of the contents of the loot boxes.
The negative reaction started when the game became available to a handful of players who had early access through pre-order. The game's loot boxes, which can be obtained by playing the game or by spending real money, contained random prizes for the players. In effect players effectively do not know what they are paying for when they purchase the loot boxes.
The matter garnered regulatory attention when Belgium's gambling authority decided to investigate the loot boxes feature to determine if it constitutes gambling.
Due to the magnitude of the backlash against the loot boxes, EA decided to remove microtransactions from the game altogether. Initially, the loot boxes can contain items that affect actual gameplay. Now, the progress that players can make is tied to their in-game achievements.
The negative feedback suffered by the game and reflected on the franchise started becoming a concern for Disney. According to reports, Disney's executive for consumer products and interactive media division, Jimmy Pitaro, was involved in the decision to pull out microtransactions from the game.
The negative attention and connection to gambling is not healthy for the franchise, which targets kids for many of its franchise outings. With the upcoming "Star Wars" film less than a month before getting released, Disney surely does not want any negative branding to be associated to the franchise.
