Star Wars Battlefront 2 Hits 19 Million Players After Epic Games Giveaway

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Star Wars Battlefront II was available for free last weekend on the Epic Games Store, leading to the game reaching the milestone of 19 million players. This is a particularly impressive feat, considering that the game received its final content update last April with the addition of the Battle of Scarif. In it, players were able to experience ground battles on Hoth, Tatooine, Yavin 4, Scarif, and the second Death Star. The update also added Scarif and Crait to the Heroes vs. Villains game mode and finally gave players the option to play co-op mode with AI companions.

Of course, the other reason the 19 million player benchmark is impressive is due to the legendarily negative reception Electronic Arts received when the company revealed that the game would feature microtransactions and loot boxes, many of which required players to spend real money in order to unlock some of the franchise’s most popular characters such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia. In response to this, EA’s Community Team posted a comment on Reddit explaining that these mechanics were intended to give players a “sense of pride and accomplishment” upon unlocking them, a comment which is now the most downvoted in Reddit history. As a result of this debacle, loot boxes were quickly abandoned.

According to GameSpot, EA has clearly turned this situation around. Both Battlefront titles have now sold a combined 33 million copies and EA will continue to work with Lucasfilm Games to create more Star Wars content. In fact, since Battlefront II, EA has already regained some good will with Star Wars fans with the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which received generally favorable reviews and won several awards for its storyline, score, and overall game design. To celebrate the 19 million player achievement, EA took to Twitter to thank players for their continued support.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1353802773905760256

The story of Battlefront II’s rocky start is an unfortunate indication of an approach that many studios are taking regarding “pay to win” mechanics. Recently, Activision came under fire for beginning to implement them into Call of Duty: Warzone, with YouTuber JGOD pointing out that Black Ops Cold War weapon blueprints, which can be purchased with real money, can be used to access weapons that are significantly more powerful than their standard versions. Another Activision-published game, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, was initially praised for only allowing players to acquire in-game currency by winning races and completing challenges; however, after the game had already received several positive reviews, Activision raised the prices of many of the game’s cosmetic upgrades and began allowing in-game currency to be purchased with real money.

Ultimately, EA has earned some congratulations for listening to the gaming community and taking steps to remove loot boxes from Battlefront II–even if the company probably didn’t do it out of kindness. While the game isn’t flawless, it’s still a perfectly enjoyable game that has given 19 million people a chance to experience some truly thrilling Star Wars content. The lesson to be taken away from this is that the people who purchase these video games have the power to tell developers and publishers what they will and will not stand for. In a time when it seems as though microtransactions will eagerly be slipped in while players’ guards are down, this is a lesson that gamers should learn before their wallets pay the price.