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."
Why didn't they use the money you earn in game to buy weapons!?... why try & squeeze real money out of gamers & f**k people off?, you have the mechanics in the game!?, you earn money from campaigns?, you buy weapons to use online?....simple.
"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." Yeah sure they were you lieing little sod.
I never knew about this. It would have resulted in me not buying it if this stayed the way they planned, no matter how good the game was. The idea of it is just crap and greedy.
I hate dlc of any kind. If the content's there, why not just put it in the game. It's complete utter greed. But when it gets to the point where anyone with more real-life money are at an advantage in a game then that's just not fair. We play games to escape that kind of discrimination (admittedly it seems to get harder with expensive games and systems), not to get it again. But thank god that the boycott campaign has worked in this instance. Everyone should boycott dlc completely. Don't give in to those greedy f**kers!
i hope this will go towards most EA made things, as they are slowly realising (i hope) that they are looseing the respect of gamers with so much content being downloadable to buy all the time, and they better do something about Rock Band...its not right
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