Star Wars Battlefront II video game maker apologizes after an outcry from angry fans

Gamers had complained in recent days that it takes huge amounts of time -- or money -- to unlock features in Star Wars Battlefront II. Regulators in Belgium, meanwhile, are looking at whether the game constitutes a form of gambling.

Some Star Wars fans who paid roughly $60 to buy Battlefront II were upset to find that optional charges built into the game can cost them hundreds more.The company behind the new Star Wars video game has turned off a money-spinning part of it after an outcry from angry fans and scrutiny from regulators.

"We hear you loud and clear, so we're turning off all in-game purchases," said Oskar Gabrielson, the general manager of the unit of gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA, Tech30) that developed Battlefront II.

Fans were angry because Battlefront II essentially gave players a choice. They could spend a huge number of hours collecting in-game credits to unlock new features and cooler characters, or pay real money to get them instantly.In the gaming world, this is called "pay to win." It's not unusual, but the format has typically been used in mobile games that are free to download.

Some gamers calculated that it would take six years of playing two hours a day to unlock all the features in Battlefront II without handing over any real money. Paying for everything, meanwhile, would cost over $2,000.

"It's a complete ripoff and the multiplayer is rigged for whoever is willing to spend more money," one gamer said on Twitter last week. "It is designed to make you spend more money after buying."

"We've heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages," Gabrielson said. "And we've heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn't get this right."

Previously, the game developers had tried to placate fans by reducing the cost of unlocking "hero" characters by 75%.The in-game purchases aren't gone forever, though.

Gabrielson said they would return "at a later date, only after we've made changes to the game."