Oh Boycott, EA Offer Exclusive Weapons For Pre-Ordering Battlefield 3
Fresh from their press conference talking about how free their game is, EA have announced that certain weapons in DICE’s Battlefield 3 will only be available when pre-ordering from specific retailers.
Announced on the BF3 blog, my favourite inflammatory line being “Claim battlefield superiority this Autumn!”, the Physical Warfare pack will feature two guns and two add-ons for weapons. Whilst the shotgun is simply day one access, the ammo, suppressor and machine gun are all unavailable in game. Sweet splintering EA.
This has ignited the fiery furnace of internet rage and in this writer’s opinion rightly so. A pre-order boycott has been started on Reddit and is quickly gaining coverage. The most idiotic part about this whole thing is the fact that EA tried the EXACT same thing with Bad Company. That time Sarcastic Gamer started a successful boycott, so it’s hard to see this one going away.
Pre-order DLC is an issue that has never been free from controversy. It’s something that I’ve yet to see receive anything but ire from the gaming community. It seems strange then that EA would take a game that is being marketed as something that will give back to the fans, and pull something like this. What’s not surprising is that apparently EA went around DICE with this decision.
The idea of offering players an advantage for money is something that even the satanic empire that is Activision is backing away from, saying this in the FAQ for Call of Duty Elite “While Call of Duty Elite wants to help people become better players, there’s still only one way to level up to new weapons, XP and prestige, and that’s to earn it in game.” Why would EA then shoot themselves in the foot by doing something like this? Only they and the investors who want lots of filthy money know.
The longer this drags on the worse it will get for EA. A swift response with a grovelling apology will probably do most people fine. It seems however EA are taking the wonderful approach of just putting their fingers in their ears and humming, locking a thread that showed 93% disapproval for the move. All press is not always good press.
I don’t really care about the DLC weapons, its the 4 maps that I take offense with. That content will be finished for launch, it should be included with the game. At the very least include it with just brand new copies of the game and tell players who buy it used that they need to buy the map pack. I don’t really see much justification for this move and it just punishes people who want to wait and see if the game is going to be good.
Either those weapons are rubbish and the people pre-ordering to get them are being shafted, or those weapons are worth a damn and everyone else is being shafted. Dick more all round really. No excuses.
they could get the worst fan reaction in the world (well, they already have), thousands of people could boycott the game (properly I mean, not one of those fake boycotts where everyone is seen playing the game on Steam on launch day) and yet they’ll still make a mint on pre-orders. People are stupid and won’t actually vote with their wallets so why shouldn’t EA shaft ‘em for all they’re worth? [i]It makes sense from a business perspective![/i]
(I am not, in any way, saying this is good. It’s disgusting. But I will be amazed if EA change their strategy regardless.)
I’d wager they’ll relent before its released but my god EA…
I want to want this game, since it I have fond memories of this series and it looks stunning, but it’s this kind of crap EA pulls to drive up pre-orders needs to stop.
I expected this after all the shit they pulled with Bad Company 2. What’s even more frustrating is I know it’ll be a strong title & won’t give it a miss. Definitely not pre-ordering though.
I pre-ordered(to no extra cost) simply as I wish to play the game on release day.
I’m sure I used to have an avatar?
@superd1984: See here: http://nukezilla.com/2011/06/13/psa-nukezilla-now-uses-gravatars-in-comments/
First of all, I’d like to say I’ve pre-ordered (and won’t cancel) for the exact same reason as superd1984. Secondly, DICE has a terrific history when it comes to balancing; I often see level 40-50 players in Bad Company 2 using the second unlocked assault rifle. It definitely seems that this was an EA move, and not something many (if any) people at DICE can possibly be happy about. If there’s one FPS studio that’s in tune with it’s audience, it’s DICE. As the article says, EA has tried this before. The community was so outraged that EA was forced to finally ditch the idea altogether. We can all hope the same thing happens, but I wonder if enough people will give up the certainty of playing such a highly anticipated title on day one this time around. DICE has gone ahead and done similar things since, albeit much less extreme, like the exclusive gun (M1) in Bad Company 2 that’s only available to those who own previous games in the franchise. It’s obviously a nice piece of kit, but it has absolutely no advantage over any of the other available weaponry in the game. Whether DICE knew about this pre-order chicanery long in advance or are scrambling to re-balance the weapons system, we may never know. What I do know is that I absolutely cannot wait an extra millisecond to begin installing Battlefield 3 on my PC. Based on previous experience with DICE titles, I personally have no worries at all pertaining to advantages/disadvantages.
For the maps… eh… I wouldn’t normally care much, but four of them? Ouch. I expect to see EA charging a whopping $15USD for those… although they could surprise us and bundle them for a fiver. That’d be okay.
I think it’ll come down to the number of pre-orders made after the open beta drops. If the boycott sticks, they’ll rescind the exclusives just as they’ve done before. It’s all a game of cat and mouse. EA knows people hate them; everyone hates big publishers. They also know people blame EA and not DICE. Bad PR for EA can’t hurt; their reputation is already in the shitter.