Electronic Arts is bringing back microtransactions to "Star Wars: Battlefront 2" after the game fell short of expected sales.
Reports say the sales for "Battlefront 2" over the last holiday quarter was about one million less than the expected 10 million copies. EA is still hoping to sell about three million by the end of fiscal year 2018 — March 31, 2018 — although this will not be able to surpass the sales of the first "Battlefront" installment, which sold 14 million copies on its first fiscal year.
EA CFO Blake Jorgensen blamed the low sales on the controversy surrounding the loot box system. Because of this, the company has decided to bring back microtransactions to "Battlefront 2" in the next few months.
Before "Battlefront 2" publicly launched in November 2017, it included a loot box/microtransaction system that encouraged players to pay real money to avail game-affecting abilities, items, and weapons. This made players feel that the action-shooter game became a pay-to-win experience.
Because of this feedback, EA removed microtransactions from the game when it officially launched, leaving only the loot boxes.
Talking to reporters in an earnings call earlier this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the loot box controversy was a "learning opportunity" for them.
"We never intended to build an experience that could be seen as unfair or lacking clear progression, so we removed the feature that was taking away from what fans were telling us was an otherwise great game," said Wilson.
With the release of "Battlefront 3" still in a galaxy far, far away, Wilson promised the firm still has a lot of developments in store for the current installment.
"We believe that live services that include optional digital monetization, when done right, provide a very important element of choice that can extend and enhance the experience in our games," he added.
The announcement that EA is bringing back microtransactions to "Battlefront 2" seems to have given the company a strong boost as its stock price hit an all-time high. On Jan. 31, it closed at $126.96, a seven percent increase from the day before.
