Star Wars: Battlefront 2 publisher Electronic Arts planned to have sold 10 million copies of the sequel during the holiday quarter, but only managed 9 million, according to CFO Blake Jorgensen. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Jorgensen blamed controversy surrounding its loot box system for the missed sales target.
And yet, despite signs that EA and DICE may opt not to reintroduce in-game monetisation, Jorgensen has confirmed that they will indeed return. "We'll do it when we think it's ready," he told WSJ, indicating that they'll come back "in the next few months".
While 9 million units shifted might seem pretty good, the original DICE Battlefront game, released in 2015, had sold 13 million copies during its first quarter on shelves.
EA and DICE announced last week that it would start talking about its new, revamped, Battlefront 2 progression system in March. This will most likely dovetail with the new in-game monetisation scheme being introduced, though it's anyone's guess whether it'll resemble the controversial system which featured at launch.
Whatever the case, you'd have to be a cave dweller to have missed the recent controversy surrounding loot boxes, mostly prompted by Battlefront 2. Most recently, a Washington state senator has taken the cause under his wings.
