No new seasons, Clone Wars spread to several updates and lack of content bring us to an unpleasant conclusions about the future of Star Wars: Battlefront 2
EA and DICE promised a different and exciting Star Wars: Battlefront 2 game. More complete and exciting than the first one. In the months prior to its launch last year and even after that, all the messages from the developers were positive and promising. Lately, however, the failure to fix annoying bugs and glitches, the seemingly canceled seasons program and the Clone Wars content being spread too thin over too long period of time, all these hint at something bad for all fans of the game – EA is dropping its support soon. Keep reading to learn why and don’t forget to tell me if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments below.
I am a Star Wars fan. I’ve always been excited for Star Wars video games releases, especially well budgeted ones from known and popular companies. When the first Battlefront 2 failed by delivering only half a game with its launch and asked a full retail game’s worth of money for the Season Pass and additional DLCs, I started worrying about EA’s approach to the series. Still, I got the Deluxe edition for the second game!
In the Summer before Battlefront 2’s launch, I was optimistic. The leaks, the information we were fed was all positive – completely redesigned Star Cards system (if only we know in what way it was redesigned…), no paid DLCs, more maps, heroes, vehicles… More of everything. Sounds good, right! It did!
When we all got out hands on the game’s demo (which the devs called Open Beta), we got to see how different the game really was. All in a bad way. Because of the huge uproar from the Star Wars community and with some “help” from Disney, apparently, EA disabled the MTX in the game and promised to fix the progression system. This system was integrated into the core of the game. Soo deep, it took DICE months to fix it.
The revamped Progression System was a huge success, I have to admit. At least for me. I enjoyed all of these changes. The feel of grinding was still there, but to a much lesser degree!
What about the Seasons? The first season was tied to the Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie release. While it didn’t exactly amaze anybody with its content, it offered enough to keep players busy and entertained for a month. Then came the drought. The second season came about half an year later an was dedicated to Solo: A Star Wars Story. It lacked proper new content and was split into two updates.
Not long ago, Reddit fans noticed that the Seasons button and info was gone from the official website of the game. The Clone Wars was believed to be another season, but with the release of the Roadmap for Star Wars: Battlefront 2, we learned that the Clone Wars new content was to be split into several updates over the Summer and Fall of 2018.
And here we come to the thing that inspired me to start writing all of this:
You told us it was a “live service”. You told us there would be “seasons”. You said the dam was breaking. You said “change would be a constant”. Why should any of us believe ANYTHING else you have to say, EA/DICE?
This is the title of an angry post from a Reddit user u/Dwarf_power. It currently is the highest ranked thread on the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 subreddit. The amount of hate towards the developer DICE and their overlords EA is incredible.
For the most part I agree with the title of the thread.
EA keeps pushing their idea for a “live service” into games that aren’t supposed to be this way. To me it seems like they do that just to try and squeeze out a few more dollars out of the fans’ pockets. I loved the idea of Battlefront 2 not having paid DLCs post launch. That was a good way to bridge the gap between players and allow more activity on all fronts in the multiplayer mode.
The main source of income should have been the crazy microtransactions-infested progression system. When it was disabled a day before the games’ official launch, dark clouds started gathering around the title and its future. Slowly the updates became smaller and further apart. New content was delayed or completely missing from many patches.
Let me go back to the reddit thread, whose title I quoted earlier and give you a few insights of what DICE’s response actually was (or is – they are still responding as I type).
Ben Walke, the community manager for DICE and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, also known as F8RGE on Reddit, commented a few times so far on various angry messages:
It makes me sad to see how his reputation has fallen. His responses were quite popular and loved just a few months ago. I don’t know if it’s the crowd’s mentality working here or the undeniable fact that Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s post launch support has been lacking and poor… to put it politely. When there is no money and resources for a proper support and development of additional content, I don’t believe it’s the developers to blame. Even less the community manager. Star Wars: The Old Republic fans can probably agree with me on that :)))
Ben’s honest, at least and that seems to earns him some points back:
If you like, you can visit the thread itself and leave your thoughts, suggestions or just read the conversation. It’s mostly negative and hateful, though. So, be warned :)
There is one more personal disappointment I would like to share with you. As a Star Wars fan and a lore junkie, this is my biggest issue with Battlefront 2 – the single player campaign.
Oh, what high hopes I had for the new canon story that was to be told in the game. And… Oh, how disappointed I was after it ended. The gameplay was fun, although very linear and incredibly short (4-5 hours for the whole campaign).
SPOILERS COMING!
The twist with Eiden Versio jumping sides was the most annoying moment for me. EA and DICE advertised the campaign to be something new and unique. We were going to see the events from the pint of view of an elite soldier of the Empire. Even the book that came out last Summer – Inferno Squad – did not give away even the slightest hints of what was going to happen only a few chapters into the single campaign in the game.
SPOILERS ENDING!
I loved all the easter eggs in the campaign. I enjoyed how it was actually related and involved with the movies. The additional three chapters added post-launc were also fun and gave us somewhat of a resolution and a closure. Although, I felt like it could (no, SHOULD!) have continued, but the removal of the microtransactions system its return only in the form of cosmetics, meant no steady income for the game any more.
With the release date of Anthem fast approaching and DICE’s resources being evidently diverted to support Battlefield V, I think it is only logical to conclude – Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is done after its December update. There are still a few exciting big things to come before that, though – like Geonosis.
Don’t get me wrong! I don’t expect DICE to drop support all together, like what BioWare did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. However, I don’t expect any big additional content to be added to the game. Boy, would I love to be wrong on that! Only time will tell. As Ben said in that same Reddit discussion, he is currently only allowed to talk about the Roadmap and only on the parts of it that have been publicly announced already.
Time for you to share your thoughts! Do you agree with my points and opinion? If not, why? I’d love to hear your opinions!
