Two years ago, when Electronic Arts’ Star Wars Battlefront 2 was new, it was also the best example of overmonetising of a video game. The publisher tried defending the massive grind required to unlock iconic Star Wars characters, but did so very poorly. Now, it’s officially in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most downvoted comment on Reddit.
Reddit user -amsha- shared a shot of the record now immortalised in the latest edition of the book. At the time of writing, the comment by an EA community manager has 667817 downvotes. But at its lowest, according to the Guinness World Record entry, it had 683000 downvotes. And it’s pretty far ahead of the next most downvoted comment in the message board, which only had 88906.
Back in 2017, EA defended its excessive monetising of Star Wars Battlefront 2 with the infamous “pride and accomplishment” comment. In the face of unprecedented backlash, the company removed them in November and rebalanced the game. Lootboxes would later make its return, though its contents now only consist of cosmetics.
Often, game developers and publishers would take a step back after pushing the envelope a little too far, hoping to outlive the outrage. While things have indeed cooled down, this particular one may never really be forgotten, considering it’s an actual Guinness World Record. Now that’s a feat worthy of “pride and accomplishment”.
(Source: Reddit [1], [2])
