Should EA ditch Star Wars Battlefront’s Season Pass?

Last week, Battlefront players were treated to the game’s first piece of DLC. A new map and game mode modelled on “The Battle of Jakku” looks to bridge the gap between the films because, of course, we need to be reminded that there’s a new Star Wars film coming out next week. I’ve spent roughly 25 hours playing Battlefront and its new DLC, and admittedly, I like it. However, I’ve hit the “brick wall” I alluded to in my review, and it’s absolutely killed the game for me.

In admitting that [Battlefront] lacks depth while still keeping players at a distance by slowly releasing over-priced content, EA is complicit in alienating the “hardcore” base it alludes to.

Shortly after launch, I wrote a piece arguing that gamers shouldn’t be criticising the game for lacking the “depth” of other DICE games, because, from what I remember, the Battlefront games of last decade certainly weren’t benchmarks when it came to gameplay depth. What they offered was unadulterated, mindless fun set in a Star Wars universe: easy to play, but hard to master. Importantly, they were great Star Wars games. The aesthetic appeal was unmatched, and this year’s Battlefront isn’t all that different in that sense.

What I did note then, however, was that it was perfectly fine to hold the game to account for its lack of content and filler modes. Its Season Pass has ticked off a lot of gamers, particularly Titanfall players who gave EA another chance after that game's DLC split the community over time. I guess expecting EA to have learned a lesson here was too much to ask.

It’s a shame, because Battlefront still has the potential to be a very special game. It’s reportedly met EA’s sales expectations (despite retailers saying it has under-performed), and in my experience on Xbox One, matchmaking has worked well most of the time (although I had issues finding full games on the weekend). A few colleagues with the PC version, however, have noted that it’s nigh impossible to find a full server, with one admitting that they “never thought they’d give up on a DICE shooter for a Ubisoft one” (they’re of course talking about the very solid Rainbow Six: Siege). I doubt anyone would have predicted that a series that was so firmly established on PC in its early years would struggle to sell 200,000 units at retail.

Strangely, EA has admitted that the game lacks depth, although the comments appear to be more a gloat of the game’s accessibility rather than the fact it has left hardcore players from the PC era in the dark. Its Season Pass has been heavily marketed towards console players (primarily PS4 owners), despite the fickle nature of the console audience to move onto new games faster, not to mention the saturation of first-person shooters that are already aimed at console players. But that’s certainly not Battlefront’s biggest problem: it’s that some retailers in Australia are already selling the base game for cheaper than the Season Pass. That’s shocking, and rather telling.

I said in my review that the Season Pass should have been included in the base game. I believe that even more right now. I’ve reached a point where the game lacks the replayability of other shooters on the market, namely Black Ops III and even Rainbow Six: Siege, which, despite having a similar breadth of content, offers a distinctively deep and strategic multiplayer offering that Battlefront simply can’t compete with.

There’s no problem with Battlefront lacking that sort of depth, because I think it excels in being both an aesthetically and mechanically pleasing multiplayer experience. But in admitting that it lacks depth while still keeping players at a distance by slowly releasing over-priced expanded content, EA is complicit in alienating the “hardcore” base it alludes to, while also compromising the trust players have for it to deliver engage, deep content: if you’re going to create a shallow game that you admit is shallow, at least surround it with content. Creating a game that looks great and plays well was just one step, and if the reason to split it out into a Season Pass was to rush the game out ahead of The Force Awakens, then it might just be best to cut its losses and do a Ubisoft.

It’s probably too late for that now, but Battlefront’s biggest problem isn’t gameplay depth. It’s always been clouded by a Season Pass that continues to remind us just how shallow a game it can be.

Did the season pass influence your decision to purchase Star Wars Battlefront?