Good afternoon everyone,
I hope you have been enjoying your holiday weekend.
On Friday we talked about about gamers-as-consumers backlash, specifically mentioning the original iteration of Steam, and we noted that social media has intensified this process.
I wanted to give you a heads up on what is happening today: EA has just received the most downvoted comment in the history of Reddit (!!!) for its response to the fact that it has introduced pay-to-win Star Wars Heroes, who are technically also free but would take 40-in-game hours to unlock.
News Story here: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/11/13/ea-39-s-battlefront-ii-response-sets-record-for-most-downvoted-comment-on-reddit.aspx
The original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/ (EA response is top comment).
Watch this space, this story is only just beginning…
Columban
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Hilarious! Looks like EA responded to the loot box controversy in the game’s beta by adding even more microtransactions.
Will be very interesting to see how they move forward. I don’t think I’ve seen a backlash quite like this – a lot of the posters on that thread are talking about boycotting the game or returning it and asking for refunds. I imagine the EA public relations team is sitting around a boardroom table at this very moment…
Update 1: EA/Dice Succombs (at least in terms of the Heroes) – https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/battlefront/battlefront-2/news/swbfii-changes-launch?utm_campaign=swbf2_hd_ww_ic_soco_twt_swbfii-launchchangesblog-tw&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cid=41287&ts=1510608860671
Yes Piers, I think you’re right. This has gone far beyond the usual backlash, and I think it’s definitely reached the upper ranks of EA (at least for their sake I hope it has). EA stock has actually gone down since this morning, so I’m guessing the changes were due to this financial worry rather than any other social media comments. The point to take out of this is that developers start moving when gamers stop opening their wallets, and the threat of boycotts and pre-order cancellations has lit a fire somewhere…