Natten inden spillets officielle udgivelse valgte EA at slukke for Star Wars Battlefront II's aggressive mikrotransaktioner efter tirader af klager fra utilfredse fans, og åbenbart et vredt opkald fra Disney, og lige nu forbliver de slukket imens EA finder ud af hvordan de håndterer sagen på den lange bane. Mange spil beskæftiger sig udelukkende med kosmetiske mikrotransaktioner for netop at undgå en "pay-to-win" situation, men det ønskede EA ikke at gøre, og ifølge EA's CFO er det for at "beskytte spillets kanon".
Ja, Blake Jorgensen forsøger sig med dette forsvar af spillets opsætning og progression i et interview med GamesIndustry, hvor han siger følgende:
"The one thing we're very focused on and they're extremely focused on is not violating the canon of Star Wars. It's an amazing brand that's been built over many, many years. So if you did a bunch of cosmetic things, you might start to violate the canon. 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."
Derudover forklarer Jorgensen, at EA ikke giver op på konceptet om mikrotransaktioner på grund af Battlefront II-skandalen.
"We're not giving up on the notion of MTX. We're learning and listening to the community in terms of how best to roll that out in the future, and there's more to come as we learn more. But I would say we're certainly not changing our strategy. We think the strategy of deeply engaging games, keeping the community together, and allowing people to play those games with new content coming via events over time is critical to the future of our business. We feel like we've nailed that in the sports games, and we'll continue to try and find the best model that works in the non-sports games."
Det lader ikke rigtig til at de har lært noget som helst, gør det?