Lucasfilm has released a statement regarding the controversy that has engulfed recently released game Star Wars: Battlefront II.
Electronic Arts (EA), the game's publisher, copped fierce criticism for practically forcing players to spend large amounts of extra money to unlock the whole game on top of what they paid to purchase it.
Battlefront II costs around $100 in New Zealand, and if a player didn't want to pay more than that they'd have to spend hundreds or thousands of hours on the game to unlock every aspect of it.
Following the outcry from fans, EA suspended in-game payments - a move backed by Star Wars owner Lucasfilm.
"Star Wars has always been about the fans, and whether it's Battlefront or any other Star Wars experience, they come first," the company told Washington Post.
"That's why we support EA's decision to temporarily remove in-game payments to address fan concerns."
Multiple outlets have reported top executives at Disney - which owns Lucasfilm and is preparing the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi - triggered "temporary removal" by contacting EA to express its unhappiness at the fan outrage.
The controversy around the 'loot crate' system in Battlefront II wasn't just that it locked parts of the game behind a pay-wall - it was also seen as encouraging gambling and unbalancing the multiplayer in favour of those who spent more.
Part of the backlash saw a comment an EA representative made defending micro-transactions become the most "downvoted" comment in Reddit history.
Battlefront II sales are down 60 percent compared to 2015's Battlefront, according to Eurogamer.
Newshub.
