Lucasfilm Releases Statement About The Star Wars Battlefront II Loot Box Fiasco

We're not sure if you guys are aware or not, but there was this whole "thing" about Star Wars Battlefront II and microtransactions. We haven't heard about it a ton over the last few weeks, have you? Well, in the spirit of never letting this debate die down, let's talk Lucasfilm weighing in on the entire fiasco. Upon EA telling investors that removing the pay-to-win stylized microtransactions would have no effect on earnings, Lucasfilm, by proxy Disney, released a follow up statement.

The original statement was made to the Washington Post and is as follow:

Star Wars has always been about the fans—and whether it's Battlefront or any other Star Wars experience, they come first. That's why we support EA's decision to temporarily remove in-game payments to address fan concerns."

EA has of course denied the claims that their loot crates could be correlated with gambling, though the Washington Post also sat down with a psychologist that had an interesting perspective on what is now being dubbed "The Year of Loot Boxes" and how it is, in fact, gambling:

"If you put it in fundamental terms, it's really the same thing, it's called gambling. Americans are falling so far behind what other countries are doing [in terms of loot box regulation], and it's all about profit. you have gaming lobbyists who don't want us to talk about this. We just haven't had it come to a head yet."

It's interesting to see the many sides to this issue, especially since the rise in popularity has been alarmingly high. Even companies that have had no previous interest in microtransactions are now vowing that all future titles will carry them. With more and more people talking about it, and more of the industry putting pressure on the publishers that favor this growing trend, it will be interesting to see what 2018 brings for gamers and the gaming community.