EA angers fans over Battlefield 3 pre-order exclusives

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 …

[Electric Panda]

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.

[Thomas 4]

It's a good job I'm not the cynical sort

....otherwise I might have said that maybe EA is doing this *deliberately* in order to drum up a few headlines over Modern Warfare, with absolutely no intention of seeing it through to release. I might also have said that when EA backs down from this as they originally planned, they can say they were "moved by the passionate feedback of its fans" or some other marketing friendly bullshit to make themselves look like a caring company, rather than a bunch of manipulative money grabbing opportunists whose souls not even Satan wants.

Oh and before the downvoting starts, I couldn't give a fuck about Battlefield or Modern Warfare.

[P Zero]

@Thomas 4

I suppose they live by the "any publicity is good publicity" mantra. I don't honestly remember actually liking EA Games since ye olde Compulsion for Forward Momentum: Tremendous Wagers.

Was mildly interested in trying Battlefield, but I'll hold onto my copper.

[Anonymous Coward]

BF3 October

BF3 has been dated for 25/10/2011

Lol it doesnt take must to get the fans upset does it

[Anonymous Coward]

But...that's 4 days after the world really ends

Lord Camping told us it would all REALLY end on the 21st of October so anyone who has pre-ordered will never be able to use those secret weapons.

Paris. because, well, just because.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

[M Gale]

Insert Title Here

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.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Thus...

...will there be an accident in the airlock of EA's marketing department?

[Tom 260]

Daftness

This is even more ridiculous than the now common practice of splitting up desirable (as opposed to frivolous) pre-order bonuses among different retailers, so if you do pre-order, you have to pick which ones you miss out on.

[CD001]

Ye-es

To be fair to the games devs though - they probably get some backhanders from the retail channels for "exclusive" content and then they release the whole shebang as a patch/DLC a month or so after release.

[Michael 47]

Surpised?

EA treats customers like shit.

In other news: Sky still blue, bear shits in woods.

[Gordon861]

Don't Only Blame EA

From EA site "All of this amazing content is available at no extra charge to gamers who pre-order the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition: Physical Warfare Pack exclusively at www.game.co.uk and www.gamestation.co.uk"

Perhaps people should be boycotting Game and GameStation as well so that they get the message to stop screwing up the games for the gamers!

[Mark Rogers]

Not the retailers fault

It's not up to the retailers what they get to offer afaik - It's all down to what EA gives them.

[mego]

Erm

I don't think you get the difference between extra content vs actual edge in gameplay. It's like all the early comers get a gun and unlimited bullets, all you schmucks that come late get a blunt dagger - and you're comparing that with everyone who gets it elsewhere getting a brown gun, blah boring with a super duper colorful gun of the same type that has racing stripes.

I mean seriously dude. I get your "sarcasm" but it only really works when you make sense.

[trarch]

Competition

I'm pretty sure they'll cave and meet buyer demands, since if they don't they will be directly upping MW3's sales.

[ratfox]

I will boycott

Well, I would not have bought it anyway, but...

I am surprised they are not going the Farmville way, and letting you BUY more efficient weapons once you have the game.

...And after six months, new weapons are added, even more efficient. KA-CHING!

[Ralph B]

They Will Backtrack

Of course they will backtrack. A bunch of folk WILL pre-order on the promise of weapon advantage. Then EA will later be "reluctantly forced to withdraw this offer due to public reaction", thus placating the boycotters. The pre-orderers won't bother cancelling their pre-orders because they are lazy and fickle. Nice bit of publicity generated by all the controversy, and inevitably, more publicity equals more sales. Business as usual.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sad

Anyone over the age of 16 who gives even the remotest sh1t about this needs to take a long hard look at themselves in a mirror. It's a computer game ffs, nothing more. If you don't like EA's marketing strategy, don't buy the bloody thing.

[Chad H.]

I think that's the point

You do know what "boycott" means right?

[Heff]

right, because only kids play games.

Its a competitive, online versus game. DICE took time to set up a balance, roll out some form of upgrades, levelling, etc etc etc. and then EA went and tipped the scales. Its a shit thing to do to your devs, and its a shit thing to do to the customer.

Its not about 16 year olds having a rant, its about EA failing to understand the point of competing in a level playing field.

seriously, do you play games at all? Imagine you looked forward to the release of a single-player racer (for instance) How would you feel if EA said "pre-orders will receive an unlock which will prevent the controls from randomly steering you into a wall during races" or "buy it on amazon to receive a copy that doesnt randomly freeze, or at gamestop.com for a copy where savegames dont become corrupt"

Its a bullshit plan; it doesnt respect the product. Trollface, cos you gotta be trollin.

[Anonymous Coward]

If its like the pre-order special items in Darkspore....

If its like the pre-order special items in Darkspore, then it won't mean much, the special pre-order stuff was things that you either stop using or things that unlock normally in the first few days of playing the game.

The bigger advantage will go to the people who wait a few weeks and buy the game after the price drops.

[David Evans]

Oh for crying out loud

You may get an early weapon unlock that you'll get anyway if you play for about ten minutes. Storm in a teacup. Good to see the fanbois getting whipped up into an irrational lather of nothing. Again.

[Annihilator]

See dictionary for details

The word is "exclusive". i.e. others are excluded from receiving the weapons. Specifically the Type 88 light machine gun, the SKS sniper rifle flash suppressor and the lethal armour-piercing flechette ammo for the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun. Yes, there is an early unlock that's included (the DAO-12), but the rest are "powerful weapons and items *only* available in the Physical Warfare Pack" - I've highlighted the key word for you again.

http://www.battlefield.com/uk/battlefield3/blog/battlefield-3-limited-edition-physical-warfare-pack-available for details before you assume that the folks a tad upset are "fanbois" (though again I think you may be further confused - a fanboi is someone who would love the game regardless and not be upset at all)

[T.a.f.T.]

But are their better guns

I dont play this family of games but from what I know there is a limited amount of stuff they could give a player which would show they bought the pre-order pack. If someone wants to let people show they bought either the Pre-Order or Special Edition packs then I dont see a problem with that as long as it does not give a lasting advantage over the other players; i.e. Other packs can be bought later on with as good a stuff or completing chunks of the game give equivalent/better items.

If the only thing you can see on peoples avatars are guns then what you give away is guns, nothing wrong with that as long as they are not super weapons that mean no one else will ever be able to get clos.e. I am sure there will be other sniper rifles with and without flash suppressors so although this is a significant leg up to those few who choose the pre-order I dont expect it to be a boon never to be equaled through game play.

[Sooty]

pre-order

what they should have done, is give people exclusive things that are both visible and non-game affecting. A unique camo pattern, a silly hat, etc.

What wouldn't surprise me though, is if the pack is a piece of DLC costing a few quid that the pre-orders get for free.

[David Evans]

Read the article - understand marketing speak

I did the read the article and the key phrase is "launch day exclusive". I guarantee you those items will be available as unlocks for everyone else as soon as you unlock a few levels. Think it through, Dice are not in the business of doing exclusive development for GAME/Gamestation. They've done this before.

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

Nice!

Some twat says, "You know what? Let's make sure we get the sales by giving something really cool away with the pre-orders? Some free game gizmos, what are those things, oh you know. The things that go bang, guns and stuff!". Other stupid execs agree with Twat #1.

Developers and forum admins speak up and say this will piss of the serious players who will buy it but as they're only devs and admins just lowly nobodys who don't understand the "biz" they get voted down by execs, despite the fact they are most likely to be in touch with the gamers that pay EA execs wages!

[Levente Szileszky]

It's kinda weird but I'll still buy this over any Activision junk...

...like Ball of Duly: Monotone Wardrobe X etc.

[karl 15]

Will you boycott?

Will you boycott? yes as i've said for a long time, this is not going to be a bf2 or bf1, just a small map xbox game

[Anonymous Coward]

How ignorant of you.

If you're saying that then you obviously know nothing about this game.

Also no I will not be boycotting anything over stupid crap like this, as this has no bearing whatsoever on the single player portion, which is really all I care about.

[karl 15]

QUOTE "How ignorant of you."

"How ignorant of you."

looks like the EA trolls are awake lol

If you know anything about PC's and games, then you will surly know that you cant fit a pint in a half pint.

For god's sake the xbox has held the PC back for years, thats a fact

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

[Visual Echo]

Never buy EA anyway

I will never NEVER give EA any money ever again. This is just one more example of why, but my permanent boycott of their stupidity started a long, long time ago.

[Head]

Hmmm

I stopped buying games made/published by EA after 'Waiting For A Plane' (BF 1942).

Admittedly that game was enormous fun, and is one of the better games i have played

[Mike Green]

Not just consumers EA likes to screw...

But devs for EA have long been complaining about working conditions, overlong work hours, etc. Basically treating the people who make them all their lovely cash like rubbish and not paying them much.

[Suburban Inmate]

I boycott all games

Leaving aside not wanting DRM turdware all over the walls of my "digital home" (Irrational Games and Monolith I'm looking at you, re: Bioshock and F.E.A.R. The latter I bought but had to crack to play.) my gaming system cost me £1800 to build... 5 years ago :(

[Scho]

Sad state...

Ironic how Activision killed off their main PC user base with MW2 by taking out all the modding and making it an xbox version ported to PC with the connect to players (which doesn't work and must have pissed off a lot of server hosts). I remember them basically stealing a lot of MW2 ideas from community content which pissed a lot of people off too. I haven't touched the series since though I place my blame with the sales/management not the Devs so I can't say if they rectified it but it was a massive clanger that lost them me and a lot of friends. We went and bought BC2 instead.

I think EA have just done the same kind of clanger. Shame as BF2 was and still is a brilliant game and they eventually let you download all the extra add-ons for free anyway. I liked the fact the PC games weren't full of DLC rubbish and xbox squeaky kids all trying to use aim bots and wall hacks,

Bring back the days of MoH and Cod/UO. Graphics might not look much now, but the gameplay was brilliant.

[Fred 21]

*Exclusive* pre-orders

While I don't agree with this, I suspect the items will only be *exclusive* for a little while. It's the way most games (esp on XBox) are going. Take 'LA Noire' from Rockstar, there were various pre-order exclusives depending on where you bought the game. Less than a month after release these pre-order bonuses became available for purchase via the Marketplace.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I'll be boycotting it

Yes, I'll be boycotting it, but not because of any pre-order bonus offers. Just because it's EA, and I've been boycotting them for years.

Frankly I couldn't give a toss what pre-order carrot they dangle in front of people, it doesn't entice me to buy a game early, and it won't dissuade me just because someone else has better virtual toys than me. These days I tend to wait til some other mug buys it and have a go on theirs, since about half the games I've been anticipating turn out to be tripe.

Anyway, in multiplayer war games like this, the vast majority of people I come up against online run around like idiots blasting anything and everything in sight like they're playing quake or something, and they suck at them anyway unless they're spawn camping or whatever... enjoy yer super-duper pre-order weapon... I'll still beat you every time with a pistol :p