Star Wars Battlefront 2 is now out in the wild, but the negative response to its controversial progression systems shows no signs of going away.

Over the weekend, EA responded to the conversation on reddit - in a comment which is now one of the all-time top downvoted posts on the site.

Commenting on a thread titled "Seriously? I paid $80 to have Vader locked?", the EACommunityTeam reddit account wrote:

"The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.

"As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the open beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily bases, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding and of course attainable via gameplay.

"We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.

"Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can."

It's a fair statement but one which, in fans' eyes, was then completely devalued by a tweet from EA community manager Mat Everett's personal account:

"The armchair developers on this internet," Everett wrote. The tweet has now been deleted, but the message - and its responses - were archived.

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"What a BS response to the community," one fan responded. "'Gamers first', eh? We want DLC that makes sense. We want progressions [sic] systems that make sense. We DO NOT want a $60 game with a F2P model. You need feedback/constructive criticism."

Everett has since said his comments were a general statement and not meant to refer to Battlefront 2. He has also since reported receiving death threats.

I removed those tweets as hordes of angry gamers being told I was speaking about them were upset. I get that, but someone misinterpreted my tweet, I again apologize for that, but it was not my intent. Trust me I am at bat for this community and game/franchise I love. — Mat Everett (@sledgehammer70) November 12, 2017

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Another popular thread on Battlefront's reddit detailed the estimated time it would take to unlock a hero through standard play. There's a spreadsheet of data and everything. The number is about 40 hours.

EA replied to that thread too, with the above statement and a few added lines:

"Our goal involves creating a compelling progression path for all of our players," EACommunityTeam wrote. "There's a lot of content at launch with even more coming via live service, and we'll continuously adjust our progression mechanics to give players a sense of accomplishment as they explore all of Battlefront 2."

Eurogamer's review of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is still in the works, although we have already appraised the state of the game's loot boxes upon launch.