WOW!, EA's dialogue at the earnings call was incredibly insulting: "EA CEO Andrew Wilson suggested that the players voicing concerns about Battlefront II's loot boxes are a vocal minority."... I suspect that the VOCAL MINORITY as they suggest! are the hardcore/Youtubers/reviewers who actually drive a lot of the decisions within the community. Maybe some of EA's investors need to go online and look at the backlash they are receiving. At this point the only reason that EA do well is because they have the money to licence the biggest IP's and invest in marketing. EA (and the whole gaming industry) need to be really careful, micro-transactions could cause the industry bubble to burst and then we will be left with nothing.
These large businesses rely on huge revenues to ensure that they can keep trading and if the cost of entry to gaming becomes substantial then consumer uptake will fall off and EA's bottom line will be effected. Also their aren't going to be any more exciting console releases (as it appears that Sony and MS are going to a new iteration model and moving away from the new architecture) in the future which will negatively effect EA's potential to earn... Why would anyone buy FIFA 22 when they already own FIFA 19/20/21 on the same machine? (this is a rhetorical question). As a non-industry person it appears that EA is only really publishing £50 DLCs and full price games that offer less than mobile phone gaming platforms.
Sony and Microsoft need to step in and take control of this situation! EA has been dictating the video game market for too long and clearly as a business they are happy to take the punches from their core customers as the mainstream don't generally read the gaming news. However due to the efforts of the so called VOCAL MINORITY this Battlefront 2 micro-transactions/gambling has been reported in most major news outlets which appears to have been incredibly effective so far!
I know this sounds like a rant, but it really isnt. We are quickly approaching a technical plateau, 4k and VR are already here and realistically the technological entry point to mainstream 8K gaming is a decade away, so whats new to keep the casual video gamer shopping in 3 years time . As core gamers we are all incredibly lucky to have so many choices, but WE all rely on casuals to keep pumping their money into the market. If we lose the casuals due to the overly complicated money spinning scams [that are being conducted by all the major publishers] then we will lose a majority of the indies and/or the big companies will consolidate and we will have even less choice and even worse business practices.
I hope this all makes sense! Its really really important that as consumers we keep these big publishers balanced through friendly protesting. The relationship between a business and its customer base should be one of partnership and communication. Currently EA are the equivalent of an Italian restaurant that gives you a tin of tomatoes when you ordered a Spaghetti Bolognese and then acting shocked when they get a complaint!
And... if you dont care about any of the above, then that is absolutely fine your probably just one of the MUTED MAJORITY lol!
@groowagon: And all of the people who want to progress early and get all the best kit will play NOW and spend the money, they really don't help the community as they will justify the whole system by putting cash in their coffers. EA are playing a waiting game. They will rehash the micro-transaction system slightly once the media back lash has fizzled out and people have become tired of the whole debacle!!! Its basically a copy and paste of Donald Trumps politics into video games. Social political economics suck ass right now :(
@djvanheb: Still!... play to win on a full price game is terrible behaviour. I have LOTR Shadows of War and that has loot boxes, however that game really doesn't feel like a play to win scenario, because the player doesn't necessarily have to worry about real world competition (as such) and the annoyance that goes with this when you don't have all the good stuff. However I do think that any game that has a paywall/P2W/micro-transaction aspect should automatically be rated an 18+/21+ age rated game.... This would make the publishers have a long hard think about putting this stuff in their games and young adults and children shouldn't be expected to manage their cash responsibly and adults shouldn't be encouraging these people to spend their money in this way.
@alfredo1234: Your English is fine!, Times are changing and so is the fan base. My major concern is that teenagers and older children are going to be wasting their pocket money (or stealing their parents credit cards) on random in-game junk to keep up with their friends!, When Star Wars Battlefront 3 come out all of the in game garbage becomes worthless!... its pretty unethical when you think of the type of people who will be drawn in by this!
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