Some mistakes stick forever, and the Star Wars: Battlefront II mistake is still sticking with EA as their rival, Ubisoft, called them out in their recently released Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for failed cover-up of pay-to-win loot boxes.
During the cold November days of 2017 that were heated up by the controversy surrounding Star Wars: Battlefront II and EA's shameless attempt at cash grabbing via progression loot boxes in the game, the company's PR team decided to do something walking a thin line between great stand-up comedy and complete lunacy - go to Reddit and try to cover it up with a half baked comment.
This turned out to be the most hated comment on Reddit, with a staggering 667.820 downvotes, at the very least. The subject was simple - a fan complained about EA's predatory practices since they paid $80 and Darth Vader was still locked. In an unprecedented flash of brilliance, EA's PR team responded by saying that their "intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes", while attempting not to mention the pay-to-win elements in the process.
Fast forward to present day, almost a year after the incident, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is garnering attention as it is one of the latest AAA titles on the market. New interesting and funny bits of content, including divine genitalia, are popping up all over the place.
Such was the case with the video embedded above, where a player was in Crete, attempting to collect "pre-trial" tokens that would allow them to fight the Minotaur. Players can essentially "pay-to-win" as they can purchase these tokens instead of going through with the pre-trials. When the player reached the second token holder, they didn't offer the option to buy the token outright, which prompted the player to ask about it. The question happens at 6:38 and then the hilarity ensued.
The token holder responded in a brilliant manner, asking Kassandra if she wants "to pay to win?!" after which he mildly berated her by asking "Where is your honour? Where is your sense of pride and accomplishment?". Considering the context of pay to win and the usage of these exact words, it's hard to imagine folks at Ubisoft weren't giggling when they tossed this jab in.