The new 'Star Wars' game is embroiled in controversy, and fans are furious — here's what's going on

In it, you can play as over a dozen iconic "Star Wars" characters, in major "Star Wars" locations, doing "Star Wars" things like using The Force and piloting the Millennium Falcon. It's even got an original story, bridging the events of "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens."

Unfortunately, all fans are talking about is why you shouldn't buy it. One of the top posts on the game's Reddit page on Friday morning was, "Target Employee here. We haven’t sold a single copy of Battlefront II. Keep it up!"

The situation is complicated and messy — here's what's going on.

Problems started long before the game's release.

Though "Battlefront 2" just launched on November 17, there were several opportunities for fans to play the game before that. A beta of the game was available in October, which enabled anyone to try the game's multiplayer section.

Overshadowing the game itself, which consists of first-person shooting and spaceship dogfighting, was the way "Battlefront 2" implemented so-called "loot boxes." Players were able to buy in-game currency ("crystals") that could be used on in-game loot boxes; these boxes contain a random smattering of items that can be used in the game, from character enhancements to other forms of in-game currency.

What people took issue with were the character enhancements. By putting items in the loot boxes that impacted gameplay, the game's developers unbalanced gameplay in favor of people who were willing to spend more money. This is known as "pay to win" among gaming fans.

The game's loot-box system was altered in response to complaints from the beta — but not enough.

When the beta ended, EA told fans it would address complaints with the loot crate system before the game's soft launch in mid-November.

But when the game arrived through EA's Early Access system on the Xbox One in mid-November, the loot system hadn't changed much at all. You could still pay real money for access to enhancements that would otherwise take dozens of hours to unlock by playing the game.

Meanwhile, you were playing against people who could easily defeat you with stronger weapons, faster movement, and more health — people who were willing to pay more money on top of the $60 price of the game.

On top of that, a number of major "Star Wars" characters — including Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader — weren't unlocked from the start of the game.

Characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia — so-called hero characters in the game's multiplayer mode — require in-game credits to be unlocked.

Redditors discovered it would take dozens of hours to unlock just a single hero character. Alternatively, you could pay real money for loot crates that might contain the currency used to unlock hero characters.

One Reddit user summarized the situation concisely: "Many believe that this ridiculous grind is a way to encourage microtransaction purchases."

To be clear, the main selling point of the "Battlefront" series is offering "Star Wars" fans a greatest-hits version of the beloved sci-fi universe. Play as your favorite characters! Explore famous locales from the "Star Wars" universe! You could spend dozens of hours playing the game to unlock these characters, but for many people, the whole point of buying the game is to play as these characters.

An EA representative issued a statement on Reddit, which made fans way angrier. It is now the most downvoted comment of all time on Reddit, by far.

This was the comment:

People latched on to the very first line: "The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes."

The response was extremely unfavorable, to the point that it became the most downvoted Reddit comment of all time. It's ahead of the competition by hundreds of thousands of downvotes.

"That's rich. Just be honest. The truth is you know very few people are going to sink a full work week into this game and you're hoping that somebody is desperate enough to buy credits to unlock the character," a popular response reads. "It has nothing to do with providing a 'sense of pride and accomplishment.' This is a flat-out lie and you know it. How naive do you think your player base is?"

The game's publisher, EA, responded by dropping the in-game cost of the hero characters by 75%.

Let's pause for a moment here to point out that, at this point in the story, "Battlefront 2" has not fully launched yet. There was a beta in October, and some folks on Xbox One got early access to the game through an EA subscription program (press also had access at this point, myself included). But the game only officially launched for everyone on November 17 — the day I'm writing this.

All that said, the Monday before launch, EA dropped the price of all hero characters by 75%.

Keep in mind that we're talking about virtual currency price, which translates to hours spent earning currency by playing the game and/or currency earned from loot boxes purchased (by proxy) with real money. Thus, by dropping the in-game price for those characters, it meant it would take players less time to unlock them (or less money).

But the backlash persisted, partially due to another change that was implemented alongside the price reduction. Though the price for each hero dropped by 75%, so did the amount of currency earned from completing the game's single-player campaign. So heroes cost less to unlock, but players would still have to push through hours of multiplayer — at a disadvantage against players who were willing to pay microtransaction fees — in order to unlock main characters like Luke Skywalker.

The game's main Reddit was filled with organized efforts to cancel pre-orders of the game, and to discourage purchases in general.

And on November 16, the night before the game launched, EA dropped microtransactions from "Battlefront 2" altogether. It appears that even that is not enough.

In a letter published on Thursday evening, general manager Oskar Gabrielson of EA's DICE studio — the studio responsible for the game — wrote, "We’re turning off all in-game purchases."

Again, this is before the game launched on Friday.

Though the button prompt still shows up in the game, it leads to an error screen if you try it:

That's from this morning, Friday, on my PlayStation 4. Today is the game's official launch day, where "Star Wars Battlefront 2" becomes widely available at retail and on digital storefronts on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

But the controversy isn't over. Reddit users have latched onto another line from an EA statement. "The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date," Gabrielson wrote in the letter, "only after we’ve made changes to the game."

It's unclear when those microtransactions might come back to "Battlefront 2," but the mere spectre is keeping fans away.

"The Microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2 have been TEMPORARILY disabled. Don't fall for EA's tricks, this isn't over yet," reads one Reddit thread. "Don't give EA an inch: "The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date," says another.

So, how's the game? It's okay.

We'll have a full review of "Battlefront 2" coming up shortly.

If you're on the fence after hearing about all this controversy, you could certainly wait a moment or two on buying it. It's certainly not going anywhere, and there are a ton of great games to play right now.

That said, the game's campaign is at times fun, at times bland, and most average. The multiplayer is similarly middle of the road, and you could certainly do better on both fronts with many other games this holiday. In one respect, however, it's better than most: "Battlefront 2" is an outrageously pretty game. If you're looking to show off your new 4K gaming console on your new 4K TV, it's a great way to do that.

All controversy and criticism aside, "Battlefront 2" is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

The new 'Star Wars' game is embroiled in controversy, and fans are furious — here's what's going on

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