EA angers fans over Battlefield 3 pre-order exclusives
Buy now, die less later
EA's Battlefield 3 has caused quite a stir: stunning gameplay, jaw-dropping trailers and a never-ending spat with Activision's Modern Warfare 3 has placed the game at the top of many people's wish-lists as one of the most-anticipated releases this year.
Unfortunately, EA shot itself in the foot this weekend with the announcement that customers who pre-order the game will receive exclusive weapons and equipment that gives them an edge over folk who wait until the game is actually out before buying it.
Developer Dice is said to be far from happy about it, and the games fans are more than outraged. At the time of writing, 94 per cent of folk posting comments on the EA forum say it's a bad idea.
There is even talk of fans boycotting the franchise until the situation is rectified.
Looks like somebody didn't pre-order
A thread over at Reddit.com is calling for fans to "Vote with their wallet" and send emails to EA in complaint. The response has been massive.
A few years ago, EA tried something similar with Bad Company. The community vented its annoyance and the outfit soon backtracked on the decision.
Battlefield 3 is out this October. Will you boycott it? ®
COMMENTS
Surpised?
EA treats customers like shit.
In other news: Sky still blue, bear shits in woods.
Will you boycott?
In a word - yes.
Can't say I'm particularly surprised, this is EA after all, but there is no way I'm playing a game where you can buy an edge in gameplay.
I can see the news reports now..
"EA reports that over 95% of it's new game, BF3 are pirated!"
"It's just typical, with piracy the way it is today a decent company can't make a profit" says company spokesman Ai'm A'morrhon. "it just goes to show that our approach to DRM was all justified. Justified, I tell you!" Frothing at the mouth, Ai'm is led from the interview. Another sad casualty of piracy. When will those filthy pirates learn.
Back to you Tom.
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Having to create online accounts for single player games, having to install bloated malware because of the guilty-until-proven-innocent assumptions of shit like Steam and EA's awful downloader, destroying the second hand market by making half the game in the form of "super extra free exclusive DLC" that can only be licensed to one person...
Plenty of reason I stopped buying most PC games some time ago, and this is just an extra one.
How monumentally stupid
They did pretty much this with Bad Company and, as the article rightly points out, the response was generally catastrophically negative.
That is some serious audacity and nerve from EA to try and pull the same stunt yet again, especially without even telling DICE who actually developed and built the game in the first place. EA are either monumentally stupid or hold their customer base in complete contempt, with my money being on the latter.
