Concerns over Star Wars canon were to blame, EA CFO says
Electronic Arts’ confusing and controversial in-game economy for Star Wars Battlefront 2 was so unpopular with fans of the franchise, the publisher was forced to rip out in-game purchases from the game just hours before it officially launched. So why did EA and DICE opt for a complex economy of credits, crystals, Craft Parts and Star Cards instead of, say, cosmetic skins for its heroes? In part, it seems, it was due to concerns with violating the Star Wars canon.
Cosmetic items have proved popular in games like Overwatch, League of Legends, Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty, and with a wide variety of costumes available to Star Wars’ heroes and villains, treating the heroes of Battlefront 2 more like Kenner action figures seems like a logical monetization solution for EA.
But EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said today that it’s not as simple as that. When asked why EA didn’t stuff Battlefront 2’s loot boxes with cosmetic items that players could purchase, Jorgensen said the company went down a different path to stay true to canon and Star Wars realism.
“The one thing we’re very focused on and they are extremely focused on is not violating the canon of Star Wars,” Jorgensen said at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. “It’s an amazing brand that’s been built over many, many years, and so if you did a bunch of cosmetic things, you might start to violate the canon, right? Darth Vader in white probably doesn’t make sense, versus in black. Not to mention you probably don’t want Darth Vader in pink. No offense to pink, but I don’t think that’s right in the canon.
“So, there might be things that we can do cosmetically, and we’re working with Lucas[film] on that. But coming into it, it wasn’t as easy as if we were building a game around our own IP where it didn’t really matter. It matters in Star Wars, because Star Wars fans want realism. But Star Wars fans may also want to tailor things — a different colored lightsaber, things like that. So you might see some of that.”
It’s easy to poke some holes in Jorgensen’s reasoning here, given that Battlefront 2’s multiplayer (where those cosmetic items would be used anyway) is violating canon all over the place. Having prequel-era Darth Maul and Rey from The Force Awakens on the same battlefield doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, timeline-wise. So why not go Ugnaught wild and add Lucasfilm-sanctioned variants like Samurai Darth Vader or Ralph McQuarrie’s original design to the game as skins? Hell, white or pink Vader is fine with me. As someone who personally owned a dozen Luke Skywalker action figures can attest, fans do care about this stuff — and canon be damned if it means I can play as Wampa-damaged Luke Skywalker in Hoth gear or hologram Emperor Palpatine.
We can also point to 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront, which included a bunch of cosmetic options for Rebel and Imperial foot soldiers. In that game, players could unlock a variety of races, genders and facial options, letting them play as, say, a Rodian Rebel or a woman Stormtrooper (which was something of a novelty at the time). Those weren’t canon deviations, but they at least added some customization to the troops.
Obviously EA needs to play by Lucasfilm’s rules when it comes to Star Wars, and it sounds like they were forced to when it comes to cosmetics. Plus, getting approvals on potentially dozens of character and weapon skins sounds like a nightmare when trying to get a licensed AAA game out the door. But hopefully the two parties will figure out a smarter solution, one that will satisfy Star Wars fans and corporate interests, by the time Battlefront 3 rolls around.
Source: Polygon – Full
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