Why Star Wars Battlefront 2 avoided cosmetic items: 'Nobody wants a pink Darth Vader'

EA CFO Blake Jorgensen has explained why Star Wars Battlefront 2 controversially opted to fill loot crates, which players are able to purchase with real-world money, with items that grant a competitive advantage instead of cosmetic items that would not.

Jorgensen made his comments at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, explaining how the issue for publisher EA and developer EA DICE was the canon of the Star Wars universe.

"The one thing we're very focused on and they [owners of the film franchise LucasFilm] are extremely focused on is not violating the canon of Star Wars," he said.

"It's an amazing brand that's been built over many, many years, so if you did a bunch of cosmetic things you might start to violate the canon.

"Darth Vader in white probably doesn't make sense, versus in black. Not to mention you probably don't want Darth Vader in pink. No offence to pink but I don't think that's right in the canon."

Controversy engulfed the release of Battlefront 2, as players rallied against the game's progression system and how it encouraged players to pay real-world money in order to progress at a faster rate.

The cost of certain playable characters (with an in-game currency), and how much play-time it required to unlock them, was another major issue.

In response, EA first lowered the price of these characters, then turned off microtransactions completely the day prior to the game's launch on 17 November.

The furore has sparked a heated debate in the gaming community about loot boxes, with politicians around the world also chiming in, and has seen EA's stock shed $3 bn (£2.24bn) in value since Battlefront 2's release.

Jorgensen said that cosmetics could one day be added to Battlefront 2.

"There might be things that we can do cosmetically and we're working with Lucas on that. Star Wars fans want realism. But Star Wars fans may also want to tailor things - a different-coloured lightsaber, things like that. So you might see some of that."