Battlefront 2 Can't Top Sales In First Week

Screen Rant

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Can't Top Sales In First Week of Release

By Rob Leane

Published Nov 20, 2017

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 fails to top the UK boxed sales chart in its first week of release, as the game's launch continues to be troubled.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has failed to top the UK boxed sales chart in its first week of release, as the game's launch continues to be troubled. The game’s expensive loot box scheme, paired with a questionable progression system, resulted in a situation where it would take 4,528 hours of gameplay or $2,100 to unlock all the content.

Even in trying to resolve the problem, EA has incurred a significant backlash. The company’s response to complaints on Reddit quickly became the site’s most downvoted post ever. EA also turned off all in-game microtransactions, but it’s still easy to argue that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has a pay-to-win problem. Reports have suggested that Disney has stepped in to try and resolve EA’s ongoing PR nightmare.

EA had already been feeling the consequences of this poor launch, with the negativity around Battlefront 2 hurting the company’s stock prices. Now, some significant evidence has emerged to suggest that sales of the game are coming in lower than expected as well. GamesIndustry.biz has shared the UK boxed sales chart for Battlefront’s week of release, revealing that EA's major new title failed to reach the top spot:

Call of Duty: WWII (new entry)
Star Wars Battlefront II (new entry)
FIFA 18
Pokémon Ultra Sun (new entry)
Pokémon Ultra Moon (new entry)
Assassin's Creed Origins
The Sims 4 (new entry)
LA Noire Remastered (new entry)
Super Mario Odyssey
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (new entry)

Yoda Star Wars Battlefront 2 Playable Character

Battlefront 2 did pick a tough launch week with lots of competition, but EA still would have wanted that top place in the league table. Crunching the numbers further, GamesIndustry.biz found that these launch-week sales are down 61% compared to 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront and down 50% compared to EA’s shooter launch from last year, Battlefield 1. A lot of players would have avoided physical purchases and bought the game digitally, of course, but these are still not happy figures for EA.

However, you could argue that Battlefront 2 will have a longer shelf life than a lot of games. When Star Wars: The Last Jedi inevitably dominates the global cinematic box office in December, there is bound to be a renewed interest in the newest Star Wars game. Christmas could help, too, as people outside of the online discourse might be tempted to purchase the game for their kids. Nonetheless, EA execs will not be looking fondly at their spread-sheets today.