Late last week, EA/DICE shocked everyone by revealing that no, you won't have to pay for those bonus downloadable weapons in Battlefield: Bad Company...if you buy the Gold Edition...or if you take part in various marketing programs. As well, senior producer Karl-Magnus Troedsson said that if you don't want to shell out the extra cash ($69.99) for the Gold Edition, you can simply "reach the level cap" in the retail game to receive the extra guns. I can't wait to see how the latter actually pans out.

That's great and all, but what exactly will those "marketing programs" be? What do you have to do?! Not to worry folks, now we know.

• Demo Unlock - Play either the Xbox 360 or PS3 demo and receive a weapon unlock.
• Veteran Unlock - Register with the Battlefield Veterans program and receive a weapon unlock.
• Website Unlock - A weapon is unlocked when you first check your stats on the Battlefield: Bad Company website.
• Pre-order Unlock - A new sniper rifle is unlocked when you pre-order the game .
• Newsletter Unlock - Sign up for the Battlefield newsletter and you'll get a new weapon.

Now, is everyone happy? In addition to confirming an eventual demo, it seems like the five programs detailed above aren't the worst thing in the world. However, these weapons are obviously going to be to finished, just put them in the game, EA. Come on.

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Kaworus_Lover said:

Everything is fine except for the whole Pre-order one. That one you can't get after the game is released, and not everyone likes to pre-order a game.

April 13, 2008

furio311 said:

I still don't get why everyone is all over EA about this. Rainbow 6 just did a very similiar promotion. Preorder it at x store and get a gun code. Preorder at y store and you get an additional multiplayer map code. Is it right? No it isn't but I didn't see anyone complaining when Ubisoft did it. EA did it with Army of 2 giving you a gun code with a preorder. Ace Combat had a ton of stuff on the disc that you had to buy to unlock in the marketplace. Very few of those stories got talked about at all, never mind a couple weeks worth of how bad EA is. It isn't like they are the only company that is trying to make the most money off there customer in the video game world.

April 13, 2008

Phil said:

Companies offering promotional content is different than EA's proposed new business model that was being hinted at here.

April 13, 2008

furio311 said:

was it really even hinted at? I don't work in the industry, but from listening to a variety of gaming podcast from the big companies to the independents, I constantly hear about the marketing of gaming industry. How they have a specific plan on how to get there game talked about. Isn't it possible that this was there plan all along, but they were blindsided by the fact that everyone that got into the beta saw that you needed to purchase guns. That EA had a plan to announce that x amount of guns would be told to the public at a specific point during there marketing campaign. Is it possible that wasn't the case, without a doubt. But again I point to capcom and ace combat having planes on the disc that needed to be purchased to be unlock and the lack of coverage of that. There were a couple games that launched in the fall that had content on the disc that wasn't available to users at launch and had to be purchased to be unlocked. Very little was made out of that, but because EA was allegedly going to do that, we need to crucify them. I am not saying that we shouldn't band together to get on EA if they planned on it being a new business model, I just wish that it happened to every company. I also think the promotional content is a bunch of BS as well. At first I was having a hard time deciding where to buy the game. Best Buy had the gun, gamestop had the extra map and target had a $10 gift card. If it wasn't for the fact that the codes for the gun and gift card weren't plastered all over the internet I don't know where I would have bought it. Do you really think the alleged boycott started by sarcastic gamer was the reason for the info coming out about it being a promotional thing? Even on this site the entire site wasn't behind the boycotting. I think I would be generous to say that potentially 100k wouldn't buy the game due to the boycott. Considering the game is coming to both next gen platforms, I would think they would still make enough money to make the game and make another with 100k sitting on the sidelines. Between the following the series already has, and the glowing reviews of those in the beta I really think it is more coincidence rather then the alleged boycott working. Didn't EA even mention in the press release from last week that the guns were going to be on the gold disc and thru PROMOTIONAL giveaways, and by reaching a certain level cap. I have never seen anything to lead me to believe it was a change in EA's business model but more that they were caught with the pants down and didn't know how to procede.

April 14, 2008

Juggler18 said:

I don't have a problem with this stuff, not even the preorder bonus weapon. It's their way of rewarding early adopters. Two of the guns I'll get for things I would've done anyway (play demo and check stats), and the other two you'll just have to fill in some fields. It won't be hard to do, and everyone will have access to it.

April 14, 2008