Welcome back from the weekend everyone! It’s been a long weekend, and whoo-ey has it been an interesting one. mostly thanks to EA. Here’s whats on tonight’s news:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to Injustice 2
- Prince Notcis, the protagonist of Final Fantasy XV, will be coming to Tekken 7
- Pokemon Go is doing a promotion for the upcoming Pokemon game.
- EA hits massive controversy regarding microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II
NeatherRealm Studios, the developers behind Injustice 2, released a video trailer announcing the Fighter Pack 3. This marks the beginning of the 3rd DLC iteration for the popular superhero fighting game. The video (linked on the right) begins with the Atom fighting previously announced fighters. When he explodes the building he’s in, he meets the Enchantress. As they move in to begin their own battle they are interrupted by none other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A surprising and unexpected pair for sure. No release date is announced, but they will be included in the Injustice 2 Ultimate Edition.
Final Fantasy Meets Tekken
Injustice isnt the only game with a 3rd DLC iteration featuring surprising guest characters. Noctis Lucis Caelum is the playable protagonist of the 2016 GOTY contender, Final Fantasy XV. Bandai Namco released a trailer (seen left) this weekend announcing that he would also be a new fighter in Tekken 7 as part of the 3rd DLC pack, set to release in “Spring 2018”.
The Pokemon Company announced in a blog post that they are promoting the upcoming 3DS game, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Due to release this Friday, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is the second Pokemon game of the most recent generation, which takes place in the tropical Alola region. For the rest of the week, Pokemon Go players will be able to equip a special topical themed outfit at no cost. Nothing says walking around in the bitter cold of winter like a tank top and flowery blouse.
EA Starts a Fire After Players Figure Out How Expensive In Game Content Is
Oh man is this a fire. The early access to Star Wars Battlefront II began for those with EA Access. Players noticed that heroes like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker required 60,000 credits (the in-game currency). One particular Reddit user did the math, and figured out that it would take 40 hours of active in game time to earn enough credits to unlock just one hero. Then when you compare the cost of the loot boxes in credits to crystals, the games premium currency, they discovered that 157 hours of gameplay would make the same value of credits as 11 hours at a minimum wage job. Players were extremely upset about how blatantly the game was designed to encourage players to purchase premium currency to unlock better gear instead of earning it via gameplay.
Then EA responded. It began when the Twitter account of EA’s Community Manager made a tweet calling the unhappy consumers “armchair developers”. The tweet was very quickly deleted, but not without people taking screenshots and referencing cached versions of the post as evidence. This had fans angry. To be told that they are ignorant of video game development because they are unhappy with expensive, microtransaction encouraging concepts was rather upsetting.
Shift your attention then to a Reddit post made by a different user. This one complained about how they payed $80 only to have to grind for so long just to play as Darth Vader. Much to everyone’s surprise, the EA Community Reddit account commented on the post, saying the following:
The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we’ll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.
This sparked a full on hatred. That comment would eventually grow to be the lowest rated comment on Reddit of all time, with a score of -300,000. A third of a million people made a point to express how unhappy they were with this excuse. This comment alone created another wave of media attention about the issues with Star Wars Battlefront II.
Its now Monday. EA has released an announcement saying that they have analyzed the credit earning rate in game, and have shifted the price of heroes to 5,000, 10,000 and 15,000 accordingly, with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker at the highest of the 3 prices.
EA has already severely tarnished their reputation with this game, however. Numerous consumers are protesting to all who will listen, telling them to not purchase this game, and even boycott EA as a whole. Others are taking to contacting Disney, the owners of Star Wars, complaining about how they will not be purchasing anything associated with EA.
This is by far the biggest screw up in gaming I’ve seen in a really long time. The last instance of this caliber would likely be when the Xbox One originally launched, with a mandatory internet connection, Kinect attachment, and always-on state.
Some cool announcements over the weekend. Too bad it was saturated with anger and corporate greed. Maybe the Consumerist will declare them the worst company of 2017 to add to their trophy collection of 2012 and 2013.
Thanks for reading everyone. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the latest and greatest in video game news. I hope you like the new site design. You can comment on posts now, so feel free to leave your opinions about today’s news down below. No signup required, just name and email (which is kept confidential, I’d disable that requirement, but I don’t know now).
Otherwise, have a great night, everyone!