Yesterday it became apparent that locked heroes in this week's Star Wars Battlefront II would have required quite some time to unlock through regular play. Responding to a specific complaint on Reddit, which was down-voted over half a million times, EA noted that the intention was to create a sense of accomplishment behind unlocking certain heroes.

Today, the credit cost of additional heroes has been cut by up to 75% with John Wasilczyk, Executive Producer at DICE, making the announcement.

Since the start of the project, listening to fans has been important in making sure Star Wars Battlefront II is the very best experience for all of you. We’ve done this with the closed alpha, through the beta last month, and our Play First Trial. And we continue to make adjustments based on your feedback as the game launches worldwide this week. Listening, and providing choices in how you play, will always be our principle with Star Wars Battlefront II. We want to ensure the game is balanced and fun both today and for years into the future.

Making games great comes from regular tuning. As one example, today we’re making a substantial change based on what we’ve seen during the Play First trial. There’s been a lot of discussion around the amount of in-game credits (and time) it takes to unlock some of our heroes, especially Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Unlocking a hero is a great accomplishment in the game, something we want players to have fun earning. We used data from the beta to help set those levels, but it’s clear that more changes were needed.

So, we’re reducing the amount of credits needed to unlock the top heroes by 75%. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader will now be available for 15,000 credits; Emperor Palpatine, Chewbacca, and Leia Organa for 10,000 credits; and Iden at 5,000 credits. Based on what we’ve seen in the trial, this amount will make earning these heroes an achievement, but one that will be accessible for all players.
It's a big change, and it’s one we can make quickly.

It will be live today, with an update that is getting loaded into the game.

Following on from this rather quick change, EA and DICE will be conducting a live Reddit AMA later this week.