Star Wars Battlefront 2 Dev Is "Incredibly Saddened" About The Game's Negative Feedback

As promised, Electronic Arts held a Reddit AMA today where some developers from Star Wars: Battlefront II developer DICE answered questions about the controversial shooter. Executive producer John Wasilczyk, associate design director Dennis Brannvall, and producer Paul Keslin all participated, spending time responding to questions and general feedback about the time to unlock heroes, microtransactions, and lots more. [Update: EA has made a huge move, removing microtransactions from Battlefront II altogether for the time being.]

Brannvall said DICE was "incredibly saddened" by the negative response to Battlefront II's community on Reddit. "In fact, we hated it, we truly did," he explained. "Because we want to make a game that you love."

The developer added that DICE believes it made a "really cool, fun, and beautiful game," and on those merits, many might agree. But as GameSpot and others said in their critiques, the game's progression system has its issues.

"We've made a really cool, fun, and beautiful game but it was overshadowed by issues with the progression system. We will fix this," Brannvall promised. He added that DICE will share more details about specific changes in the future.

You can read the full Reddit AMA right here. Some of the notable takeaways, as rounded up by BattlefrontModTeam, include the negative reaction to the crate system. On this subject, Wasilczyk said, "I think this concern has come through loud and clear." He added that DICE plans to continue to adjust the crate system, content, and progression mechanics so that it gets to a point where players have a "great, balanced experience at all skill levels."

Wasilczyk added that DICE is looking to expand the options players have to progress, with the overall aim of "putting more control in their hands and providing more options and choice in the way people play. There's not much in the game that we wouldn't revisit to improve the game for as many players as possible."

Also in the Reddit AMA, Brannvall talked about how DICE wants to keep the Battlefront II multiplayer experience fair and balanced. At the end of the day, your effectiveness will come down to skill, but DICE's matchmaking system aims to put players of similar skill levels together.

"You should not ever be matchmade together with players who are much better than you are," he said. "Ultimately your effectiveness is going to come down to skill, not the Star Cards that you have. If it doesn't feel that way, we'll see it on our side, too. Our data will tell that story and we'll make adjustments. We're looking at results from millions of matches and will be continuously rebalancing items, unlocks, and matchmaking to create a fair, fun experience for all of our players. Beyond that, all Star Cards have maximum values regardless of how they are unlocked."

Another topic that came up during the Battlefront 2 AMA was that of the credit cap for the game's Arcade mode. Keslin, Battlefront 2's producer, said this cap was put in place because otherwise, players could use the Arcade mode as a means to grind for credits, which they could then in turn use for multiplayer to potentially gain an advantage. As with Battlefront 2's other elements, Keslin promised that DICE will continually look at data and "make adjustments to make things as balanced as possible."

Again, you can read the full, in-depth Battlefront 2 here on Reddit. In other news, a gambling commission in Belgium has launched an investigation into Battlefront 2 (and Overwatch) over its loot crate system.