EA Responds to Bad Company Weapons Charge (joystiq.com)

[8th lutz]

http://kotaku.com/371407/ea-responds-to-ba...-weapons-charge

 

Electronic Arts today got back to us with their take on the whole situation. In a nutshell, yes, they will be selling some weapons through microtransactions when the game comes out. But EA says that you can get those weapons for free if you buy the Gold Edition. They also say they will have plenty of other weapons they're giving away during promotions leading up to the launch.

 

Here's their official take:

 

Hey Brian,

Per our conversation, Battlefield: Bad Company features numerous weapons in the core game. In addition to the core set of weapons, Battlefield: Bad Company will release five unique weapons free of charge through five different promotional programs prior to launch. EA will again make these weapons available to players free of charge after launch, in case anyone missed the pre-launch promotions.

 

At launch, EA will release a Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company which will feature an additional five new weapons. For players who do not purchase the Gold Edition of the game, they can still buy the five weapons at a small individualized price per item. All weapons are balanced for gameplay. More weapons offer players more choices but do not create an advantage/disadvantage for players who do not opt to buy new items.

 

Currently, the menu in the Battlefield: Bad Company beta notes all ten weapons; the five available free of charge pre-launch as well as the additional five available in the Gold Edition.

 

We will have more details on the pre-launch campaign and Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company in the next few weeks.

[godslabrat]

In a nutshell, yes, they will be selling some weapons through microtransactions when the game comes out. But EA says that you can get those weapons for free if you buy the Gold Edition.

 

Oh, that really sucks. I was indifferent on this issue until now, but this pissed me off. It's one thing to allow for expansions of a game via purchased downloads, but now they're saying they're actually planning this well in advance of the release of the game while EA still has time to actually put the extras on the game itself, rather than making them downloads. EA has the opportunity to actually give the customer the full product (evidenced by the fact that a release of the game, with all features, will exist) but instead they're choosing to release a stripped-down version, so that the customer can later be milked. Sorry, but I really think that if I'm laying down good money for a new game, I should get all the features... at least all the features that were available at launch.

 

This reminds me a lot of when Paramount started releasing season sets of Star Trek DVDs. If you happened to buy your set at Best Buy, you got a bonus disc with extra features. If you're like me, and shop online, you got "the regular release". The price was the same either way, but clearly Paramount thought that Best Buy customers deserved a little something extra. Why not just make all the features available to everyone... the money's the same either way, right?

[shadow460]

Studio Liverpool pulled this garbage with wipEout pulsE. Because of this, I may well switch over to F-Zero for AG racing. Where are the podraces, Hydro Thunder, and extreme-G when you need them?

Edited March 25, 2008 by shadow460

[+HammR25]

This reminds me a lot of when Paramount started releasing season sets of Star Trek DVDs. If you happened to buy your set at Best Buy, you got a bonus disc with extra features. If you're like me, and shop online, you got "the regular release". The price was the same either way, but clearly Paramount thought that Best Buy customers deserved a little something extra. Why not just make all the features available to everyone... the money's the same either way, right?

 

No the money isn't the same. Best Buy paid Paramount to get an exclusive to get more people in the door. Best Buy sells things online. Did they not have this for sale online?

 

What I find humorous with the EA remark is they say you can get it for free by paying more money.....oops I mean getting the gold edition. That's not really free.

[Mendon]

Sarcastic Gamer responds to EA

 

 

 

Mendon

[Ze_ro]

It's one thing to allow for expansions of a game via purchased downloads, but now they're saying they're actually planning this well in advance of the release of the game while EA still has time to actually put the extras on the game itself, rather than making them downloads. EA has the opportunity to actually give the customer the full product (evidenced by the fact that a release of the game, with all features, will exist) but instead they're choosing to release a stripped-down version, so that the customer can later be milked.

Where have you been? This has been happening a lot. Think about it, if you go online and you haven't bought the new guns, do you think you'll only be playing against other budget-minded gamers? Nope, you're going to be playing against EVERYONE, even those that own the premium guns. All the premium guns are going to have to be in the budget version for that to work, so all you're really buying is a code to unlock the use of them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the Gold version still has the guns locked, but has a card in the box with a code to unlock them. That's how Lost Planet gave you an extra map with the collectors edition.

 

This is definitely not the first time this has happened. TONS of games have had DLC available the day they were released. It amazes me that the vast majority of people either haven't figured this out yet, or that they just accept paying to unlock stuff they already have. Anyways, the uproar here is that in this case, it might cause a split between the have's and the have-not's. EA has claimed that the extra guns won't cause an imbalance in the game, but this remains to be seen.

 

DLC is a cancer that is killing modern gaming. When it's done right (Oblivion, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Halo 3) it's a great way to extend your enjoyment of a fun game, but when it's done wrong (basically all EA games), it's little more than a cash grab. But then again, I'm one of those dumbasses who keeps buying the more expensive "collectors editions", so go ahead and call me a hypocrite.

 

--Zero