The Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box saga shows no sign of slowing down, as EA makes another ridiculous claim.
Battlefront 2’s Loot boxes include items that give players an edge in competitive multiplayer scenarios.
Games like Overwatch also feature random loot boxes, but contents are limited to cosmetic items like skins, emotes, sprays and victory poses.
But according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, this wouldn’t work in Battlefront 2 because it might violate Star Wars canon.
“The one thing we’re very focused on and they are extremely focused on is not violating the canon of Star Wars,” Jorgensen said at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference (via Polygon).
“It’s an amazing brand that’s been built over many, many years, and so if you did a bunch of cosmetic things, you might start to violate the canon, right?
“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 offence to pink, but I don’t think that’s right in the canon.”
Jorgensen said that Star Wars fans want realism, although some cosmetic changes could come to the game.
“So, there might be things that we can do cosmetically, and we’re working with Lucas[film] on that,” he continued.
“But coming into it, it wasn’t as easy as if we were building a game around our own IP where it didn’t really matter.
“It matters in Star Wars, because Star Wars fans want realism. But Star Wars fans may also want to tailor things — a different coloured lightsaber, things like that. So you might see some of that.”
In even more bad news, Jorgensen said that the company isn’t giving up on microtransactions.
“We’re really watching how people are playing the game,” he explained. “We’re trying to understand are there certain modes where MTX may be more interesting than not?
“What are the consumers saying about it? How are the consumers playing the game? What do the metrics look like? We’re learning and listening to the community to decide how best to roll that out in the future.”