EA brings back in-game purchases for Star Wars Battlefront 2

Electronic Arts is bringing back real-money purchases to Star Wars Battlefront 2 next week. An update for the game arriving April 18 will let players purchase crystals, an in-game currency that players can spend on cosmetic upgrades.

Battlefront 2’s crystals can be used to purchase “appearances,” in-game skins for playable characters, EA said in an announcement today. More than 50 appearances, including new Endor-themed looks for Han Solo and Leia Organa, will be added to the game as part of the game’s new update.

Appearances can also be purchased with credits, which are earned through in-game activity, EA said.

Crystals were originally in Star Wars Battlefront 2, but EA pulled the real-money currency at the eleventh hour in response to consumer backlash over how they were implemented.

“We’ve heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages,” Oskar Gabrielson, general manager at game developer DICE said in November. “And we’ve heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn’t get this right.

“We hear you loud and clear, so we’re turning off all in-game purchases. We will now spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning. This means that the option to purchase crystals in the game is now offline, and all progression will be earned through gameplay.”

Gabrielson said in November that crystals would ultimately return to the game, but at the time it wasn’t clear how DICE and EA planned to reimplement them. DICE ultimately went on to overhaul the game’s progression system and released a major update in March.

As part of next week’s update, Star Wars Battlefront 2 will also get a new mode: Ewok Hunt.