Star Wars Battlefront 2 hero costs reduced by 75 percent after widespread complaints (Updated)

In response to the massive backlash against the cost of hero characters like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Star Wars Battlefront 2—this EA reply to complaints on Reddit has earned 450,000 downvotes in just one day, making it the most-downvoted Reddit post of all time—Electronic Arts has announced that the amount of credits required to unlock the "top heroes" will be reduced by 75 percent.

"Making games great comes from regular tuning. As one example, today we’re making a substantial change based on what we’ve seen during the Play First trial," executive producer John Wasilczyk wrote. "There’s been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes, especially Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning. We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it’s clear that more changes were needed."

The reduction means that Luke and Darth, for instance, will cost 15,000 credits instead of the previously-announced 60,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbecca, and Princess Leia will go for 10,000; and Iden Versio, the star of the Battlefront 2 campaign, will be 5000.

Wasilczyk suggested that other changes could be coming as well. "We’ve also been listening to how much you’re loving features in the game (Starfighter Assault, 40 player MP battles, Darth Maul lightsaber throws, etc.) as well as what you haven’t liked," he continued. "We’re making the changes to the credit levels for unlocking heroes and we’re going to keep making changes to improve the game experience over time. We welcome the conversation."

To that end, Battlefront 2 studio DICE will be holding an AMA on Reddit on Wednesday, November 15, featuring "some of the key leads on our team." Full details will be announced later. Star Wars Battlefront 2 will be out on November 17.

You can read more about how Battlefront 2's loot boxes and progression work here.

Update: Following the price reductions, a number of people pointed out that the campaign completion reward has also been reduced by the same amount. An EA representative confirmed that this is a single, one-time reduction that keeps the end-game reward in balance with the lower hero character costs.

"That was done to reflect the change that was made to unlocking Iden as a hero in MP, which also went from 20k to 5k," the rep said. "For completing the campaign, we give players the option to unlock her immediately, or they have the choice to use those 5k credits however else they want."

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.