BF2S Forums [BF:BC] EA succumbs to angry Battlefield fans

gamersradar.com wrote:

When the multiplayer beta for Electronic Arts' Battlefield: Bad Company went live, gamers raised an awful stink when they found out the best weapons went to those willing to cough up the cash.

One of the powers behind that stink was the website Sarcastic Gamer, which created a widely-circulated video that mocked the "pay to win" downloadable content business strategy. The video also encouraged Battlefield fans to boycott the upcoming game developed by DICE.

But EA and DICE have listened to the furore surrounding the DLC, and promptly confirmed to GameSpot that they will be making all weapons, even the best ones, available free to all gamers willing to put the time in to play the game.

In the beta, gamers had access to an array of weapons, but there were 10 that appeared only to be available as downloadable content or included in the pricier collector's edition.

EA tried to address initial outrage, saying that five of the 10 weapons appearing as downloadable content in the beta were intended to be part of a promotional campaign, and incorrectly flagged, but the other five would only be available as paid DLC or through the collector's edition.

Battlefield: Bad Company senior producer Karl-Magnus Troedsson explained, "We had some weapons that we were planning to release through various marketing programs, but they were actually flagged there like you were supposed to buy these weapons through Xbox Live Marketplace, and that was a misunderstanding between marketing and us the developers."

He said that now, all weapons will be available immediately for collector's edition buyers, and gamers who purchase the standard edition will have to put in the time to reach top level to unlock all weapons.

Bottom line, everyone who buys the game will have access to all the weapons without the requirement of paying more for them.

Troedsson said, "DICE is built upon the multiplayer community, and we do listen to what people say out there. When we saw this big uprise ... we just decided that all weapons will be free in the game, and that's how it is now."

1up.com wrote:

Let it never be said that gamers cannot, given sufficient outcry, right an injustice. In an interview with IGN, DICE's Karl-Magnus Troedsson, senior producer for Battlefield: Bad Company, announced that Electronic Arts will not charge to unlock any weapons in the game. It's an abrupt about-face from their original plan to charge gamers to open five extra weapons. Troedsson attributes the new decision to the backlash they received from gamers angered over the plan.

"We are not charging for any guns that are out there," said Troedsson. "We read the forums, we read all of the articles and listening to the storm that is out there, we're not going to charge for any of those guns." According to Troedsson, the five weapons that were originally going to be charged for in the regular edition of the game will instead be unlocked once players reach level 25 (the cap) in the game. Those who purchase the Gold Edition (which as usual will cost an extra $10) will as a bonus have those five weapons unlocked from the start.

While the news is very well received, part of Troedsson's account of the incident doesn't entirely hold water. When asked whether EA expected the backlash or if it took them by surprise, Troedsson responded:

    "It was actually a more complex internal problem then that. In the Beta, when you go into the unlock page, you can see there are five weapons that say 'will be purchasable through Xbox Live,' but those are actually the five weapons that will be released as marketing programs. That was actually a big bug in the Beta, an internal miscommunication that we had. The Gold Edition weapons, that's where we had a lot of discussion and that's why we listened and made the decision to not charge."

Whether or not the message to purchase weapons in the Beta was a bug seems to be irrelevant, as EA's own clarification at the time confirmed there were going to be five purchasable weapons. But if it was a bug, why didn't the clarification state that? Furthermore, let's assume it was a bug -- does that mean EA's original intent was to not reveal the purchasable weapons when the Beta launched? And doesn't that then mean there would never have been an outcry to listen to, and EA wouldn't have changed their minds about the weapons they were planning to charge us for?

Okay, we're getting too metaphorical now -- the fact is that now all these weapons can be unlocked without extra charges, the way it should have always been from the start. For appealing to the better angels of rationality, EA, we congratulate you.

Last edited by Naturn (2008-04-11 12:43:01)