The last few Battlefield games have been no stranger to microtransactions, and Battlefield 1 is no exception. Electronic Arts has confirmed that there will be Battlefield 1 microtransactions when the game releases in October of this year.
Thankfully, the microtransactions don’t appear to be happening in order to foster a “pay to win” atmosphere, where a player’s success in games depends on them buying better weapons with real money.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that Battlefield 1 will have both macro-monetization (in the form of map packs and large-scale content) and micro-monetization, hence the microtransactions.
The Battlefield 1 microtransactions may be similar to the microtransactions in the last two Battlefield games, taking the form of Battlepacks. Battlepacks are able to be earned in two different ways, whether completing specific objectives or buying them with real money.
Battlepacks give players a random assortment of items that can go up in quality depending on whether it’s a Standard or Special Battlepack. None of the items that come from them will be repeated, whether in the same pack, or if you’ve previously unlocked them. That, at least, saves people some frustration when they manage to get a Battlepack after a game.
Whether or not the game ends up being pay-to-win, it’s likely that it won’t impact Battlefield 1’s sales much. With it being one of the most liked videos on YouTube at the moment (in direct inverse proportion to the trailer for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, now the fifth most-disliked video on YouTube) it will most likely sell very well when it releases on October 21.
Either way we’ll have to see how EA handles the Battlefield 1 microtransactions when the game releases, and we may be getting more information about them in some other statement by EA and maybe even at E3 this June.
