After the Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box controversy, Electronic Arts’ Patrick Söderlund said the company had learned from “his mistakes” and promised to “improve. “
“I’d be lying to you if I told you what happened with Battlefront – and what happened with everything surrounding the loot box – did not affect EA as a company and our management “ has he said in an interview with the Verge : ” We can we stand aside and pretend that this has not happened, or we can act responsibly and realize that we have committed errors and try to correct these mistakes and learn from them. “
Following a restructuring of EA’s management team, Söderlund became head of design, a position that “will expand its reach and have a greater impact in a new management position”. EA announced that micro-transactions would return in Battlefront 2 this week, and Söderlund explained that the company was “wrong” the first time, which resulted in the withdrawal of micro-transactions a few hours before its launch.
“People seem to like what we’ve done, players are coming back and we’re seeing higher engagement numbers,” he said. “They seem to think, for the most part, that we have understood correctly. This is not to say that we will stop, we will continue to improve the game, we will continue to move these things forward, and we will have to be very careful with what that means for future productions. “
Patrick Söderlund explains that the loot box controversy has given EA the opportunity to re-evaluate the “mechanisms around monetization” and that they are “serious in the fair treatment of players”.
“It’s clear to us that players see the company differently from us,” he said, perhaps evoking the fact that EA has already won the Worst Company’s award in America. say the worst American company. “And in this situation, as a member of the management team, as head of all the studios, I have to take this seriously and we must continue to listen and understand what is driving this vision. “
“We need to take action and show people that we are serious about building the best possible products, that we are serious about dealing with the players precisely, and we are here to make the best possible entertainment that we can. And in cases where we are wrong, we just have to listen and learn to do better. “