EA

Fans are outraged at the newest "Star Wars" game, "Star Wars Battlefront 2."

They're mad because classic "Star Wars" characters like Luke Skywalker aren't unlocked as playable characters.

The game's maker, EA, issued a response that only made fans angrier.



A new "Star Wars" game is days from its big debut, and one of the top posts on the game's Reddit page is instructions for canceling your preorder.

That's because fans of the "Star Wars Battlefront" series are outraged that major characters are unavailable to play from the start of the newest game in the series, "Star Wars Battlefront 2." The first-person shooter "Star Wars" game costs $60 and is scheduled to launch on Friday for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia — so-called hero characters in the game's multiplayer mode — require in-game credits to be unlocked.

Redditors discovered it would take dozens of hours to unlock the characters. Alternatively, you could pay real money for randomized, virtual "loot crates" that contain the currency used to unlock hero characters.

One Reddit user summarized the situation concisely: "Many believe that this ridiculous grind is a way to encourage microtransaction purchases."

View photos Star Wars Battlefront 2 More

EA

In this way, you're not directly paying to unlock the hero characters — instead, you're paying for the chance of earning virtual currency that can unlock those characters.

After unlocking them, you can play as those hero characters in various online multiplayer modes.

It's a major selling point of the "Battlefront" series, offering "Star Wars" fans a greatest-hits version of the beloved sci-fi universe. Play as your favorite characters! Explore famous locales from the "Star Wars" universe!

View photos Star Wars Battlefront 2 More

EA

The previous "Battlefront" game had no such system. You bought the game for $60 — and perhaps the downloadable content that came out later — and that was it.

In "Battlefront 2," you are offered the option of buying "loot crates." You don't have to — they're earned through playing the game. But EA is incentivizing players to buy loot crates by locking characters behind a gate that can be unlocked only with those in-game credits. You could spend dozens of hours playing the game to unlock these characters, but for many people, the point of buying the game is to play as these characters.

Thus, EA's choosing to lock those characters has been received poorly. The California-based game publisher's response to fans over the weekend, however, sparked more outrage.

People latched on to the first line: "The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes."