Star Wars: Battlefront 2's Microtransactions Explained

While Star Wars: Battlefront II's DLC maps and characters will be free--and there is no season pass--the sci-fi shooter will have microtransactions. Now, a new video begins to explain how this system will work, and it sounds familiar to the setup in a lot of other titles.

As explained in the video from BattlefrontUpdates produced in partnership with EA, the main way to progress in Battlefront II is by unlocking crates. You do this by spending credits that you acquire by playing the game, or, if you want to speed up your progress, by spending money. In the alpha version of the game, Crates contained mostly Star Cards and crafting elements.

Additional videos from BattlefrontUpdates cover things like Star Cards specifically and the overall progression system. The progression video also confirms that weapons and vehicles can be customised just like in DICE's Battlefield 1, which is pretty cool. You can watch those videos below. Bear in mind that everything shown in all of these videos is subject to change, given the game is only in an Alpha state.

Battlefront II design director Niklas Fegraeus spoke to GameSpot at E3 about the sci-fi shooter's free DLC plans and more.A number of high-profile games are offering their DLC maps and modes for free, including Halo 5 and Titanfall 2, and the Battlefront sequel joins them for some of the same reasons. Fegraeus said that giving away DLC maps ensures that everyone can play together. In 2015's Battlefront, EA added numerous maps as paid DLC, and as time rolled out, the community became more and more splintered, leading to player figures falling.

"I think the main thing here is to keep the community together," Fegraeus said about Battlefront II's free DLC model. "In terms of the brand, to me, when it comes to Star Wars, that's a family feeling. If you're a fan, you're a part of the family. And splitting that up and saying, 'If you have this content you can play here, but if you have this content you can play here.' And if you don't share, you will be split up. What we wanted to do was have a journey that starts at the launch of the game. So when the game launches, this journey starts with different seasons [of DLC]."

Battlefront II's first season of themed DLC launches in December, themed around this year's new Star Wars film, The Last Jedi.

The overarching goal for Battlefront II's free DLC campaign is to allow players to stay together, whether or not they've spent any (extra) money on the game.

"No one will ever be locked away by some purchase that they made," Fegraeus said.

A multiplayer beta for Battlefront 2 is scheduled to arrive this fall before the game's November release. For lots and lots more on Battlefront 2, which also has a single-player campaign this time, check out all of GameSpot's written and video content here.