With games like Overwatch keeping their communities engaged through free content updates and paid cosmetics, the Season Pass is starting to sound old hat these days. And another big budget blockbuster has ditched the divisive DLC model, with Star Wars Battlefront 2 deciding to do away with the paid content pre-order in favour of something that doesn't segment its community.
It's unclear exactly which direction the developer will go, but common sense suggests it'll be looking to Blizzard for inspiration. "When we looked at the way Battlefront had evolved over its lifetime, with the DLC and everything, we decided, 'You know what? For this type of game, Season Passes are not the best thing,'" creative director Bernd Diemer told Mashable. "We need to [take it apart] and come up with something better."
He continued: "I cannot talk about the specifics of this, but we have something different in mind that will allow you to play longer [and] be [more] invested in the game without having a fragmented community."
The original Battlefront decided to break out its many map packs as premium content, which particularly stung given how light the package was at launch. The bigger issue here, however, was that it split the player pool significantly, with a portion of the playerbase never gaining access to the title's newer maps and content.
This model just doesn't make sense for competitive games anymore, particularly when maintaining communities is key. While we appreciate that online games need a steady income in order to expand over time, we much prefer the optional cosmetics model, because at least it keeps communities together, rather than splitting them up.
[source mashable.com]
Comments 34
All I hear is "we've found a better way to take your money and make it look less conspicuous"
When Battlefest took place in BF1, they had "premium friends" in which anyone who had the premium pass could invite friends that didn't, and could play on the DLC maps. However......you got ZERO XP as the "premium friend" and they said it was a work in progress.
I see DICE/EA implementing a premium pass for Battlefront 2, and premium friends, probably at a 75% XP reduction.
It especially fragments a community when that community is virtually non-existent by the time the last DLC came out. The few that had the DLC couldn't play it because there was not enough players online.
So instead it looks like they are going to cram it full of Supply drops with 'common, rare, legendary and epic' items - pre order and you get some 'Epic' abilities for each class, 'epic' abilities for your heroes, and an 'Epic' ability for the Milennium Falcon - Pay to Win model instead?? Buy Supply Drops to try and get Epic Abilities that make your characters more powerful or grind away for weeks to try and get 1,2 supply drops to be competitive with the ones spending money...
No longer a fragmented community because of maps, but fragmented between those that spend money and the cannon fodder of those that don't...
@RedMageLanakyn Fair. I probably should have been clearer in the article that they could come up with something equally gross.
But let's give them the benefit of the doubt until we know otherwise. No Season Pass is a good start.
@get2sammyb It is a good start, but i honestly can't see EA going the Titanfall 2 route with this. They did that because it is still the underdog performer of their "big 3" and were hoping some good faith towards the community would bring in more players. There's way too much money in the star wars fan base to tap into for them not to come up with something....
@RedMageLanakyn Costumes would be okay, I think. They could come up with some cool stuff given the license that would entice people into spending money, but it wouldn't break the balance of the game or anything. I'd be fine with that.
I'm thinking that the Titanfall 2 strategy may be used in here! Pretty hyped for this
@get2sammyb Absolutely. Anything cosmetic and keeps the gameplay fair for all is perfectly fine. It's all optional, after all. BAMNozzy's comment makes me shudder if it came to fruition. It would be like Andromeda's MP loot boxes, weapons, and classes, which works well in a PvE environment, but would absolutely destroy balance in PvP.
It would make sense that companies would stop doing season passes now that Nintendo has gotten on board with the Zelda $19.99 expansion pass.
@rjejr Wait, there's a BotW $20 expansion pass?
This will never be an overwatch or a destiny, they have a schedule to release a brand new game every 24 months, I don't want CoD or Battlefield style format of 6 hour campaign + multiplayer maps. I'd rather the destiny route or something more RPG heavy.
No way
EA loves money and money loves EA ! Who can forget the season pass of star wars BF wich were 50$ ? Maybe they decide to sale single player mode
Any way I can't believe it
@RedMageLanakyn My exact first thought. I read, we still want to charge you another £40 but not enough people bought the season pass so we have something entirely new.
Maybe the extra costs will be cosmetic because people will pay people for star wars skins etc. but I doubt it.
@pbernoos or the Battlefield hard-line digital premium edition for £105!
Good. I don't want paid dlc in games anymore, almost every game has a season pass nowadays. Give us the full game for $60 and make another full game if you want more money.
What's this? EA talking sense? Is it the 1st of April again? The more they're talking the better this game sounds, I'm gonna stay on the side of optimism for the time being and hope they really have learned
I wonder if the Phantom Thieves have visited the palace of EA 🤔
@get2sammyb Look at the 'pre-order' bonuses with 'epic' abilities - 1 for each class, 1 each for both 'exclusive' heroes and 1 for the Millennium Falcon. Of course we don't know if these have a significant impact on the game but it seems as though they could. The first BF game gave away access to the most powerful weapon in the game from the start too.
I have issues with the fact that two heroes are exclusive. Whilst they maybe 'balanced' to other heroes, they could still have 'unique' gameplay options which will upset the community. Those 'epic' abilities may be obtainable via grinding but I doubt they are 'weak' or not giving some bonus, some advantage from the start. It doesn't seem they are 'cosmetic' only. In fact most of the pre-order bonuses appear to give some advantage.
If 'Epic' abilities are not impacting or offer minor bonuses, how is that different from Epic weapon variations? Having exclusive Heroes is no different from having extra weapons only obtainable from 'supply drops' even if they are 'balanced'. It still upsets the community. If Epic abilities offer NO game-play benefit then whats the point of having 'abilities'?
It doesn't matter how 'balanced' these things are. Its still going to annoy people - especially as at the start, day 1, those who pre-order have access to these and some weapons unlocked. If Epic do provide a 'minor' benefit, its still more than those that don't have them have!
Mleh, I'm only interested in the single player mode.
Not the "hey gaiz we have found another way to take your money for a game you already paid for !!1" spiel.
Dear god guys! Do you have to complain about everything? No season pass is good! Cosmectic stuff in Overwatch is very functional and keeps putting money in Blizzard pocket without cripple the game, so it's a win-win! Why would EA make the same?
And about the abilities probably is like For Honor, you can buy or you can get reputation 1 with the character and it'll have the same abilities. So there's no problem at all.
Never got the Season Pass so it sounds good so far. Maybe if that Season Pass included more splitscreen maps I would have bitten.
Anyone else remember an age where you had to complete the single player mode to unlock new maps. Why can we not go back to that.
By all means charge for the cosmetics but not the maps. Encourage people to play the single player game again.
@BAMozzy Aren't the actual heroes just skins from The Last Jedi? With just the modifiers been the game effective content?
@adf86 The heroes are cosmetic skins for those two characters but according to Dice, heroes have their own career path enabling players to unlock new abilities and upgrades to personalise them to your own play style. Hero ships, including Boba Fett’s Slave I and Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, and “they have the same depth and personality that heroes have,” Bernd Diemer, creative director at DICE said. Even common ships, like TIE Fighters and X-wings, will have unlockable abilities and mods"
As well as a 3day head start, the pre order bonuses are:-
1- Upgraded versions of all 4 trooper classes (Officer, Assault, Heavy, and Specialist)
2- Four epic ability upgrades—one for each trooper class
3- Instant weapon unlocks and weapon modifications for each trooper class
4- Exclusive Kylo Ren- and Rey-themed looks, inspired by Star Wars : The Last Jedi (also in standard edition pre-order)
5- Epic ability modifiers for Kylo Ren and Rey (also in standard edition pre-order)
6- An epic ability modifier for the Millennium Falcon (also in standard edition pre-order)
Now according to the official site:-
Tailor unique abilities for each hero, trooper, and starfighter to gain the upper hand in battle with Star Wars Battlefront II’s diverse and powerful progression system. The path to victory is yours to decide.
Play as—and against—Star Wars’ most feared villains and cherished heroes from all three eras, including Kylo Ren, Rey, Darth Maul, Yoda, and many more. Unique, upgradable abilities ensure classic characters bring their distinct powers and personality to the battle.
In both cases, they talk about the Heroes being upgradeable and customisable too. Even the abilities are upgradeable and the pre-order bonus is giving, both exclusive skins with an 'epic' ability.
If you think that EA though will not charge for Maps and not add Supply/loot drops with 'abilities' in them - certainly won't be cosmetic only - then those with the most money will have epic abilities and mods. No doubt those supply drops will have a large number of cosmetic items too just so you don't get all the stuff you really want so keep spending money to try and get that OP ability or Mod that someone else has...
@Frank90 You must live a charmed life if you think EA isn't looking at alternative methods for getting more money on what will be their biggest game of the holiday season. They know just as well as we do that the phrase "season pass" is frowned upon, so they're cooking up something else.
@ToddlerNaruto Yep. Half of it comes out in summer, half during the holiday, but you can pay all $19.99 now and get Link a t-shirt that looks really out of place in the game.
http://www.zelda.com/breath-of-the-wild/expansion-pass/
But if you only want some of it, too bad.
"DLC Pack 1 and DLC Pack 2 cannot be purchased individually."
@rjejr That's messed up, but I guess it is a good deal for $20 when you consider what DLC Pack 2 has to offer.
@ToddlerNaruto Well it could potentially be good, but we don't know. My kids chipped in and bought the game on Wii U but they haven't asked about the pass. I told them I'd buy it when I played the game, but I'm waiting to see what the "map enhancement' is, I'm a big fan of maps, and seriously annoyed that they neutered it off the Gamepad.
My problem is Nitneod appears to have decided they wanted an expansion pass, but didn't have enough to put into it, so they added in some obvious pre-order bonus stuff like the chests and Switch t-shirt, which they called "Bonus" which is kinda B.S. b/c bonus implies only some people are getting it, like pre-order people, or people who pay $20 for the season pass in March rather than paying $10 this summer and $15 this holiday for the individual packs. But the packs aren't individual, it's all or nothing, so there is no bonus, either you pay for the pass and get it, or you don't pay and don't get it. And if you buy the expansion pass this holiday you should get it as well, b/c they never dated the bonus. So where's the "bonus"?
And then there's the "hard mode", which should be a free update or patch, not really part of an "Expansion".
So the expansion pass is made up of what should be free pre-order stuff, a free hard mode update in the summer and a $15 story DLC this holiday. Like they just lumped it all together and gave it a name and a price.
And of course if you want the whole game, you need a $16 Wolf Link amiibo to get the companion wolf, and 5 Zelda amiibo ranging in price from $15 to $20, b/c they unlock certain weapons and armor you can only get w/ the amiibo. All of the stuff they are charging for in the expansion pass probably could have been locked behind the amiibo. But Ntinedo is probably planning on not having enough amiibo. The same thing happened with Spaltoon when they locked 3 challenge modes behind the hard to find at launch squid amiibo. They are easier to find now, but it took awhile.
Oh, and there are also Special and Master editions on the Switch for about $80 and $120, but they didn't include any DLC.
So for a game they announced in E3 2014 to be released in 2015, reconfirmed as a 2015 release at the Game Awards in Dec 2014, then delayed until 2016, then delayed again until 2017, it seems like they haphazardly through a bunch of stuff against the wall at the end to see what sticks b/c they literally had years to sort this all out. Wii U owners waiting 3 years for this game didn't even get Special or Master edition option.
So yeah, GOAT and all that, but when you look at all the pieces and the history, I'm not impressed. I'm just a bitter Wii U owner who feels he and the game deserved better.
@rjejr Agreed on all those points. Sony does right what Nintendon't, concerning DLC.
@ToddlerNaruto Yeah, sorry all those points got so long, I didn't realize until after I posted it what a wall of text it was.
That will be nothing though if Yooka-Laylee gets DLC when the Switch versions launches, I'm still mad at them for unceremoniously dumping Wii U at the alter.
I think thats's the thing, because it's EA everyone is wondering if they're going to replace it with something even worse. But here's hoping it works out for the best.
The trailer for this story mode feels a bit generic, but here's hoping the game looks good. Plus, for story stuff we still have the game Amy Hennig is working on.
@rjejr No worries heh. I don't see myself ever playing Yooka-Laylee.
Nowadays I need games with lots of action/fights and drama with strong plots.
I'm surprised so many people are missing the fact that battlefront actually let everyone have the expansions 2 months or so after they were released to the paying customers. The only thing that cost money was getting in on the action sooner.
Meh I'd need my friends to actually be down to play this game for more than a day before switching back to R6 siege to bother.
No season pass is a great start, I just hope they don't flood the game with loot box's that give you eff all unless you stump up for the "real" loot box's for real cash. Hopefully it will be like OW and it will be cosmetic, I have serious doubt's about that though. I'm still confidant I can wreck the wallet warrior's day anyway, make's it even more fun.
Tap here to load 34 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...