It's been almost a year since Electronic Arts came under fire for Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot boxes. The game's business model led to a global debate about whether loot boxes are gambling as well as how randomized loot drops should be marked in games. Several countries also introduced (or began to explore) legislation that made loot boxes illegal. At the height of the backlash, EA did revamp the game's business model but it seems that the controversy has had a far-reaching effect on how the company makes games.

In an interview, EA's vice president of strategic growth, Matt Bilbey, explains that after the Star Wars Battlefront 2 debacle he and Patrick Soderlund, EA's chief creative officer, worked together to overhaul the company's development process. The development framework and testing platforms were "redesigned" in order to give game teams "the right guidance." Bilbey calls this "an EA moral compass."

Bilbey goes onto explain that this overhaul allows Electronic Arts to begin designing a game's live service (how the game will be supported post-launch) right from the beginning of development. This means that "we're testing it early, testing it with gamers who are giving us feedback so we ensure those pillars of fairness, value, and fun are true," says the EA executive.

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Video games are increasingly being designed as games as a service, meaning that the bulk of the revenue comes not from the initial purchase of a title but from players shelling out on post-launch content. This may mean loot boxes but it may also mean major DLC expansions or microtransactions that unlock cosmetic content that doesn't have a tangible impact on gameplay. With this being such a huge part of the industry - in EA games especially - many will be glad to see that the company is taking the right steps to ensure that live services are implemented in a positive way in future.

Although it hasn't been a full 12 months since Battlefront 2's loot boxes made headlines, it seems that EA's new process is already making an impact. Battlefield V, for example, will ditch the series' Premium Pass in favor of making more post-launch content available to all players, for free. Anthem, which is BioWare's upcoming sci-fi RPG, won't have a season pass either and will instead have cosmetic microtransactions. Neither game will have loot boxes, either.

While some EA games (such as FIFA) will likely continue to have loot boxes and similar mechanics for the near future, many will see these changes to the development process as a key compromise.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz