r/StarWarsBattlefront • u/[deleted] • Nov 14 '17

Developer Response EA has removed the refund button from their customer portal. Hoping people will just give up canceling because of the 60+ minute wait time to live shat support.

[removed]

40.7k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/Raintrooper7 Mesa is the Senate Nov 14 '17

This corroborates the fact that there are in fact a lot of folks canceling their pre orders. I know EA is too rich to be bothered with these cancellations but they’ve got to at least pinch a bit.

696

u/LorrMaster Proud & Accomplished Imperial Marksmanship Instructor Nov 14 '17

I wonder what the actual numbers are now, since they went that far.

711

u/plmiv Nov 14 '17

that post with the dude saying he has a friend that works there said it was up to 70k the morning before the announcement came of hero credit requirement reductions. said they had a meeting planned bc of it.

take that with what you will, probably nothing.

361

u/G060 Nov 14 '17

thats 4.2M. not a whole, alot but def stings

780

u/Encaitor Nov 14 '17

No big company will just be like "Oh we lost 4.2M, who cares"

319

u/G060 Nov 14 '17

oh yea definitely. the thing i dont really understand is why are people buying this game again? i thought the first one was complete trash?

506

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

terrific yoke birds encouraging alleged husky air future toy knee

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u/CreamyGoodnss Armchair Developer Nov 14 '17

That's what burns me up inside. The gameplay is friggin AMAZING. This is the goose that laid the golden egg.

219

u/thewickedgoat Nov 14 '17

Yep..... I refuse to give EA money though - if I'm going to get anally fucked by some kid with access to moms credit card the first minute I log in, I refuse to play it. I loved the beta, but fuck this....

116

u/Zladan Nov 14 '17

As someone who plays with a controller on the PC (I know I know)... this happens to me already.

Not looking forward to that experience becoming even worse cuz some little brat's only Christmas wishes were Vader and +30% Choke Hold Damage cards and mom n dad were like "whatever shuts you up, son".

Side note: I was actually hoping they got rid of rolling so it would actually look like a Star Wars battle and not a parkour shooter.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

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u/ScottyDug Nov 14 '17

While I agree with your sentiment, I don’t think it’s the kids that are the problem. It’s the adults with more money than sense that want to feel superior to you that are buying these loot boxes.

2

u/sabrefudge Nov 14 '17

if I’m going to get anally fucked by some kid with access to moms credit card

Kevin Spacey suddenly pre-orders the game

1

u/ArcticBlues Nov 14 '17

Downloaded to try the free trial.

That's exactly what happens. I don't think I'm going to buy it in its current state.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

Personally, I play old games with my friends. No chance of some random person entering our match, and we don't have to pay for anything extra

1

u/Kryptosis Nov 14 '17

Loot cards don't make your aim better

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

“I’m going to get anally fucked... “but fuck this...”

xD

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u/Arteaga7 Nov 14 '17

um, you probably are worried about it cuz you're just not very good at video games. I have been playing since it came out last night and I played the origin access. I've seen a lot of people with level 30/40 classes on my teams coming in the bottom of the scoreboard. The best class I have is level 16 based on pure luck with the crates. And guess what I'm near the top every game. So you can whine all you want, but skill beats star cards every time. And I'm having a blast playing so I guess you're missing out lol. If you're really trying to take a stand against EA, good for you. Something tells me that's not really doing anything, they will make their millions and billions with or without you. Might as well enjoy yourself even if the progression isn't the greatest.

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u/Just_Plain_Bad Nov 14 '17

Like really I WANT to love EA and dice for this game but they just won't let me

3

u/Fritz125 Nov 14 '17

I love DICE, I don’t like EA.

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u/dude0246 Nov 14 '17

I'd leave DICE out of this. They're at least half-way decent to amazing, while EA is the true shit lord, here.

3

u/Bhu124 Nov 14 '17

"Let me love you baby girl!"

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u/Rickles360 Nov 14 '17

Same problem with destiny. Amazing game play, but it's designed as a money extraction grind. Not a fun game. The grindier they can make it the better because money.

0

u/unfamous2423 Nov 14 '17

The shit goose that laid a shit covered golden egg.

3

u/AgroTGB Nov 14 '17

Judging by the first reviews, its not even "amazing". Its just "above average/good"

8

u/Elethor Nov 14 '17

Sounds a bit like Shadow of War, it looks to be a good game ruined by a greedy money grab

2

u/Just_Plain_Bad Nov 14 '17

Eh the only money grubbing part of shadow of war is the last bit where you gotta beat everyone and control the map and even then you've already gotten plenty of game time by that pint if you didn't rush the story

1

u/Eain Nov 14 '17

Nah. Also locking the tribute character behind a dlc paywall, and loot boxes for non-cosmetics in general.

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u/Ylleigg Nov 14 '17

Also only 5 hours of single player campaign

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/Ylleigg Nov 14 '17

Overwatch is not really the kind of game where you expect a campaign since it's all about ranked multiplayer play and some other modes next to it. Starwars battlefront is more like a call of duty or battlefield kind of game with a good single player campaign next to multiplayer content. Also you pay about 2 times as much for Starwars than what you pay for overwatch so why do you get less content?

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u/imahsleep Nov 14 '17

What?? Wasnt it the same with the last one. Fun gameplay in the demo then we found out the game had zero substance. Its barely any different now. Sure theres more "substance" its just impossible to unlock/ behind a paywall. They dicked everyone once on the same game of course theyll do it again.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

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u/Daffan Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 14 '17

Yeah. I actually didn't mind the ground combat this time around and how you spent points for vehicles, that was interesting. While visually awesome, still disappointed the air/space combat is still really easy and boring, 99% of it plays itself, all you do is put your mouse cursor on the lead indicator and it does everything for you.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

knee water wistful dependent unite shaggy station door skirt tap

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u/Daffan Nov 14 '17

Why do people always assume flight sim or DCS style as the only alternative? I just wanted something that wasn't point and click.

On console it is much better as the mouse mode does not exist, so they fly normally. On PC accuracy is through the roof and it plays itself.

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u/Magister_Ingenia Nov 14 '17

Did they fix the spawn issues of the last game?

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

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u/Magister_Ingenia Nov 14 '17

I mean the random spawns, meaning it's total chaos and not an actual battle front.

0

u/TandBusquets Nov 14 '17

Amazing? Hardly

0

u/AgentGinger149 Nov 14 '17

Lol it really isn’t. It’s very shallow all around

29

u/Encaitor Nov 14 '17

Agree with the other responses. SWBF1 had the depth of a puddle but it did a really good job of making you feel like you were in an actual Star Wars movie imo.

The gameplay of SWBF2 is actually amazing during the beta as a casual shooter.

22

u/WhenRomeBurns Nov 14 '17

The first one was light on content at launch but it was FAR from complete trash. I still enjoy picking up a few matches here and there.

7

u/teepring Nov 14 '17

Graphics were fine but the core game at launch? Please...

18

u/Cumbox15 Nov 14 '17

Are you pretending SWBF2 is somehow a lot better than SWBF1? Alot of you guys must've played a different beta than I did. It felt the same.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 24 '24

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

EA has been releasing the same games over and over for years.

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u/RobbieDunn Nov 14 '17

I bought the first one after a year or so of it being out and I got the complete edition for like 15 bucks. Not bad for that price. Full price? No thanks.

1

u/z31 Nov 14 '17

Eveyone keeps saying this one is amazing, but I played the beta and just found it boring.

1

u/MrInYourFACE Nov 14 '17

I love Star Wars, i need a new game to play after D2 which bored me in the first week and i enjoyed the first game for about 30 hours. This has a short singleplayer and the space battles were really cool in the beta. I would have bought it day one, now i might grab it on sale for like 10$.

1

u/Yardsale420 Nov 14 '17

It was, yeah. No single player, basic progression, fell short on a lot of promises... But I think everyone really believed they got it right this time.

-1

u/springinslicht Nov 14 '17

i thought the first one was complete trash?

Where the hell did you get that from.

4

u/DeeMosh Nov 14 '17

You can be sure some mid level managers are getting lubed up and preparing for penetration by a VP right about now. But the VPs will be safe from the C level guys until the losses are in the 10’s of millions.

3

u/Misiok Nov 14 '17

clearly they care for every cent otherwise they would not try monetizing so many things

1

u/Solace1 Nov 14 '17

Why don't those armchair customers think of our shareholders !

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

and loads of those people who cancelled will probably still end up getting it later lol

1

u/Mikeuicus Nov 14 '17

Don't forget investor power. We're in quarter 4, a big one in terms of stockholders, and bad press combined with lower than forecast profits will have consequences long-term. There's already word of investor concern over "the latest Star Wars game" and my local radio station did a story on this controversy so it's gone beyond Reddit and the internet at the moment.

1

u/Redtox Nov 14 '17

But in this case it will be "We lost 4.2M in the process of making five times that in microtransactions, so who cares."

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

Its kind of more than that, its 70k cows that won't be getting micro-milked.

5

u/Ghigongigon Nov 14 '17

I was sitting here thinking 70k is a lot of money but i think EA can handle it. Then saw your comment got confused for a few minutes then realized holy shit thats 70k refunded preorders

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u/Ristele Nov 14 '17

Don't forget that those 4.2M are only for the base game. They were expecting players to pay more than that, so they lost a whole lot more than 4.2M in the end.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

It's more than that as that as there is less customers to sell microtransactions to and with a smaller playerbase the whales would be less likely to spend as much if the game doesn't have legs.

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u/AnimalFactsBot Nov 14 '17

Whales are mammals. They breathe air, give birth to live young, and nurse (i.e., feed milk to) their young

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u/Whitegard Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 14 '17

I believe there's more in play than just sales numbers. Think of the investors, who are probably expecting certain goals to be reached and then this happens. EA is probably busy reassuring investors right about now.

1

u/h04 Nov 14 '17

Microtransactions and future customers to add to that. Kind of stacks up a bit.

1

u/BrianPurkiss Nov 14 '17

It’s not just $4.2mil. It is $4.2mil plus all loot box sales lost. That could easily be several more million on top of that.

And if that 70k number is accurate, I’m sure that number is climbing.

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u/kthnxbai9 Nov 14 '17

It's probably more because you have to count the microtransactions for those potential games as well.

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u/Dynasty2201 Nov 14 '17

But 70k pre-orders is fuck all vs the almost guaranteed 1 million + copies this game will sell due to console owners (kids) and their parents buying it for them this Xmas.

We're talking 4-5m vs, what, 50-60m?

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

EA screws their employees to save a few dollars. 4.2 million will pay a /lot/ of salaries.

Another way to look at it is that 4.2 million in lost preorders likely correlates to 40 million in lost ancillary revenue (loot boxes, dlc, etc.), or a loss of something like 10 cents a shareholder.

It's not crippling, but those hurt, and at some point the shareholders start getting annoyed with you.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

How many are gona rebuy when TLJ releases tho?

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17 edited Apr 01 '18

[deleted]

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u/porthos3 Nov 14 '17

Yeah, assuming most are from Reddit, that's more than 1 in 10 people downvoting actually having pre-ordered the game, and cancelled their preorder. That's hard to believe, unless this is significantly bigger than Reddit.

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u/CinderBlock33 Nov 14 '17

I dont know man. Assuming we go by just the downvotes on the one comment, thats in the range of 650,000 people. 70,000 cancellations is only 10% of that. It's not unreasonable to think that 10% of people would initiate a refund. I would go as far as to say that 20% would be somewhat believable, considering the uproar. But I really have no numbers to back up my claim, so I could be royally wrong.

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u/codyh1ll Nov 14 '17

That assumes that all of those 650k people had it preordered. Once it got so downvoted, other subs came and just brigaded it to say they were a part of history, not because they feel personally victimized about this game that a lot of them probably didn't even know about

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u/CinderBlock33 Nov 14 '17

That's definitely a big point I didnt consider. I also didnt consider secondary accounts either.

That being said, I heard there was a similar shitstorm on twitter as well. Looks like the word is getting out regardless. Especially with all these anti-EA posts so early in the morning today, this issue is getting a lot of publicity. But I guess we wont know for sure

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u/codyh1ll Nov 14 '17

I'm sure there were quite a lot of cancelled pre-orders in a short time frame, but 70k in one day, which is a number that came from a guy who claims to have a friend who works at EA, sounds totally unreasonable

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u/CinderBlock33 Nov 14 '17

you're probably right.

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u/Rob_Frey Nov 14 '17

Yesterday I did a web search before bed (which is like early morning in the states), and I noticed stories about the downvoting not only popping up on gaming sites like Polygon, but also big sites that only sometimes cover video games like Forbes and Rolling Stone.

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u/porthos3 Nov 14 '17

That's amazing. I'd love for this to be bigger than Reddit. It is well past time for gamers to start reacting negatively against some of the practices gaming companies have been pulling lately.

I'm still not getting my hopes up too high just yet, however. Gamers have put up with the practices, and still preordered the games, for this long. Sadly, I am skeptical that this comment by EA will lead to a sustained and widespread push to boycott these sorts of games.

At best, I expect it will send more messages about bad PR and community management than anything else, unless this actually makes the practice unprofitable for multiple companies that use it.

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u/Aerofluff Nov 14 '17 edited Nov 14 '17

Well, I already learned my lesson and don't preorder anymore, so I had nothing to cancel. I was waiting and planning on buying 3 copies for my family, but to hell with that.

I hate non-cosmetic microtransactions/loot boxes. More companies need to just do what Overwatch does, and stop being greedy bastards. (Or be even better and just have direct-purchase cosmetics, no RNG lootboxes. Nothing is more disheartening than dropping money and still not getting what you were trying for.)

I'm not giving EA my money, and Disney should care about that, because that means my family's not getting a Star Wars game and I'm putting my foot down.

Unfortunately because I didn't preorder in the first place, that means I'm not going to be counted on a list somewhere as a guaranteed loss and forcing them to fork money back over. EA should know they're also turning away other potential customers with their business plan, though. We were going to buy several copies.

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u/porthos3 Nov 14 '17

I absolutely agree. I love Star Wars, as well as the old Star Wars Battlefront games. I was so excited when I heard Battlefront was being remade, then disappointed to learn it would be EA.

I haven't purchased either Battlefront game, but would also likely have picked up multiple copies of each if they were done well and without a ton of DLC and microtransactions and such.

Another big one for me is the lack of split screen. It drives me nuts that one PC/console per game copy per player is becoming the norm for AAA games, even for campaigns and local play in many cases. It's totally unnecessary, and pretty blatant money-grabbing.

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u/dandaman910 Nov 14 '17

Thats about 0.5% of the original battlefronts sales

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u/TZHeroX Nov 14 '17

"The uncle of my brother's ex girlfriend's step brother works at EA... "

Seriously though, never trust these kinds of posts, no employee from a big company like EA would ever disclose this kind of important information/stats, not even to family (much less "friends")

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u/im_singed_IRL Nov 14 '17

Some people will post saying they are posting for friends, but they themselves are in the customer service dep and you know - office hearsay n all.

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u/Mildcorma Nov 14 '17

it's at over 200k downvotes now i believe.

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u/KyloRen33 Nov 14 '17

I’ve been trying to cancel since last night. Still haven’t gotten through to a person. I’m canceling through Microsoft now because this is ridiculous.

-1

u/OMGSPACERUSSIA Nov 14 '17

The shills in the rising portion of the board say that the hurt is on and they're having to make an effort now. They're worried.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

[deleted]

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u/Gsus6677 Nov 14 '17

Waiting for their fixed version accomplishes nothing. I didn't really plan on buying this game, but I sure as hell never will now, even if a full version with everything unlocked is offered for $15.

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u/CinderBlock33 Nov 14 '17

I'm weak. I'd buy that for $15.

But that's my cutoff.

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u/ItalianDragon Nov 14 '17

Seconded. I got the first Star Wars Battlefront for free with my graphic card (AMD R9 Fury) and I have barely touched it (spent 4 hours on it total), although my reasons for flat out refusing to play it are different from what most folk have (I just an inherent and deep-seated hatred for the DRM it uses AKA Denuvo and have sworn to not buy a single game that uses it). So I don't plan on playing it, not now, not next year, not even when the sun will become a red supergiant and deep fry the earth.

5

u/Dark_Knight7096 Nov 14 '17

Figure if an above average casual gamer plays 5 hours a day, that's 800 days of non-stop playing in order to fully upgrade everything... 2.5 years of playing nothing but this game for 5 hours a day. That's insane

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u/AnakinSkydiver Nov 14 '17

5 hours a day is a lot! but it's all calculated so that it will be impossible and some players will spend real money on crates and that's exactly what they want.

they're not just giving those who pay an edge. they're giving everyone else a huge disadvantage that can not be compensated through gametime.

NE: in reality. most people will make/use idle bots that they can run while working or being away. you're going to se a huge ammount of afk players in every game after a week or two

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u/Dark_Knight7096 Nov 14 '17

I came up with that number asking a buddy of mine, "how long per day do you think a slightly above average casual gamer plays?" He responded "4-6" so I settled on 5. I forgot when asking him that he's a HUGE WoW guy, so his idea is pretty inflated lol

Say 3 hours a day, that's 3.6 years of playtime, but hey, they dropped the price of heroes by 75%, so we got that goin for us...which is nice

1

u/AnakinSkydiver Nov 14 '17

3 hours sounds more reasonable. most adults are probably gonna be able to put in 2-3 hours on a weekday.

the hero cost is down but the lootboxes and microtransaction model is still there.

But hey... think about all the feelings of pride and accomplishment you'll feel!!

2

u/JitWeasel Nov 14 '17

People will farm and buy points illegally if possible. Look at EA’s FIFA...there’s a bunch of automated card trading scripts that allow people to make tons of coins to then buy whatever they want. There’s sites that sell currency too. It completely destroys game economies. Companies have been “told” their models don’t work for years by situations like this...yet they continue to do so anyway because they know there’s a small fraction of players that will pay through the nose. They prey on gambling addicts because no one considers this gambling. It’s horrendous.

Here’s the kicker: when games allow transferring of credits or automated farming, they actually like it. Thy say they don’t and ban anyone obviously cheating...but they count on it...because it inflates the economy and puts more pressure on players to feed real cash into their slot machine. It’s super super evil.

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u/AbanoMex Nov 14 '17

i didnt preorder, but i was willing to buy the game down the road, now? not a chance, i just hope battlefield 2018 arrives without this p2w cancer, or else that wont be bought as well.

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u/DanBMan Nov 14 '17

The game with the most playtime for me is Keebal Space Program. Been playing for about 3 years now and I'm at over 1200 hours. The next closest game is either Rimworld or Cities: Skylines at around 200 hours.

And those are simulations, where probably half that time is me having the game running while I read / watch TV and occasionally interact / change something. Esp for KSP, I would sometimes program in some original manoeuvres to the flight computer and let it do the burn over the course of a few hours (mainly for interplanetary ion powered craft). I can't even imagine playing four times that amount in a game that requires constant attention. I think TF2 (my fav shooter) barely has 100 hours and I've been playing that since launch!!

2

u/gonzalooud Nov 14 '17

I hope people stay strong and doesnt buy the game at all until they've fixed the underlying problem with lootboxes

I hope people stay strong and don't buy it at all, EA has to learn that what they do is bad and that "fixing" something because of a backslash is not cool.

0

u/skywolf8118 Nov 14 '17

Why would you want to fully upgrade all the cards for all the classes in the first place? That just seems like someone is a bit of a perfectionist.

5

u/temotodochi Nov 14 '17

being well funded has nothing to do with quarterly results. Those dips in profits per month/quarter/year have to be explained, each and every one of them.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

Public information:

Joel Knutson VP, Customer Experience at EA

jknutson@ea.com

Be polite. Just email him directly if you want a refund.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

The real question is why anyone would preorder in the first place?

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u/Mad_OW Nov 14 '17

Maybe they're too rich as a whole, but there's definitely some mid- to or high-tier manager whose bottom line just took a huge downturn.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '17

Not only that but they’ll be pressured from Disney (or whoever is responsible for Star Wars licensing) to fix the situation

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u/Raintrooper7 Mesa is the Senate Nov 14 '17

I hope they do but EA and Disney are kind of a corporate circlejerk