EA Vice President: the company will not allow a repeat of the scandal with loot boxes in Anthem
Patrick Soderlund, Executive vice President of Electronic Arts, said that the company “cannot afford” the mistakes they made with the loot box system in the online shooter Star Wars Battlefront II. This concerns the future of the MMO thriller Anthem and other projects of the company.
Soderlund acknowledged that the negative reaction of society to the system of additional monetization in Star Wars Battlefront II significantly affected the publishing policy and management of the company.
“Now, before releasing the product to the market, we carefully analyze and sort out all the mechanics of monetization and other issues,” he said.
Recall that Electronic Arts has been heavily criticized because of the development system in Star Wars Battlefront II. Players were disappointed and angered by the development system, which requires either investing a lot of time in the game, or buying loot boxes with random game content.
The reputational scandal cost EA $3.1 billion — that’s how much the company lost in a month in market value due to an 8.5% drop in its shares.
One of the consequences of these events was the increased attention of the authorities of a number of countries to loot boxes and other monetization mechanics similar to gambling.
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