EA looking to bring Battlefield Premium type service to more properties

Games Industry International - Call of Duty Elite has been a big hit for Activision Blizzard, and many suspected for quite some time that rival Electronic Arts would follow suit with a subscription service of its own. Indeed, at E3 this year EA confirmed the Battlefield Premium service ($50 per year), but EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau tells GamesIndustry International that Premium is just the beginning and EA wants to bring a Premium service to its other IP.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

News flash... I am not shocked.

[da_2pacalypse]

I know right? haha, just last year they were making fun of activision for their Elite service.... now look at them -_-

On a side note, I'd like to say that I'm looking to bringing my gaming services to publishers other than EA and Activision. How does that sound? I haven't bought an EA title since Amaleur, I'm hoping to not give'em a dime for as long as possible... they're sure not making it hard for me by doing greedy things like this lol

[Blacktric]

And they claim that their so called Premium is actually better than Elite in every way when in reality, it gives people who have it an unfair advantage with some extremely overpowered guns like AUG A3 and so on. EA turned DICE into a horrible company that doesn't care about its fanbase at all.

[Reverent]

Blacktric, you do realize that besides the G3A3, ALL assault rifles have the EXACT max and min damage, right? The only unbalancing factors are fire-rate and recoil.

I've used the AUG A3, and honestly, it's... decent. L85A2 destroys it. People need to stop complaining about things like this, because if there is ANY weapon that gives someone an unfair advantage, its the M16A3 (You know, the weapon EVERYONE has from the start.)

[GuyManDude]

First off, this article claimed BF3 Premium was a $50/year subscription before fixing the mistake (which we can still see above). It's a one time $50 fee.

Second, BF3 Premium is a DLC bundle. People who are angry about having the option to save money on bundled DLC need to have their head checked.

I have 150 hours into BF3, and I'll probably put in another 150 into the expansions. That's $90 (for me since I got BF3 for $40 at launch) for 300 hours of gameplay, or 200 hours/$60. I beat God of War III five times, and that comes out to less than 40 hours (which I'm more than happy with). For the same amound of money, BF3 will give me 200 hours of gameplay.

Third, I'd like to see more people go through with their EA/Activision boycotts. I have two EA games for PS3 (both Battlefield, haven't been ripped off by DICE yet) and only one from Activision (Guitar Hero III from 2007, the year before Activision went to sh**). That's it.

EDIT: This isn't directed at anyone specifically.

[Swiftcricket]

@Blacktric Umm Premium doesn't give you any exclusive weapons other than a knife that's for looks only. The AUG A3 is part of Close Quarters.

But on-topic, yeah, not surprised at this in the least. But I get to save money on expansion packs and get other nice little extras so for this particular game it's worth it at least. Wouldn't do it for any game that I didn't play regularly and didn't save money by getting the premium service.

[Zweihanders]

Also, the guns aren't OP. Give me an AEK, KOBRA, Heavy Barrel and foregrip and we'll see who wins. You (Blacktric) just think they're OP because a lot of people are using them, which they are doing because they're new.

Premium is better than Elite mostly because Elite has had a ton of problems. A lot of promised features were completely broken and I hear still are. Not to mention you only get them for the year. You'll probably have to pay more for anything outside that.

Now, people are hating on Premium, but in reality they should be hating on the price of DLCs in general. Everyone these days is charging $15 per DLC no matter how small. It's ridiculous. Premium is still a lesser evil in the sense that it does save you money. There's absolutely nothing wrong with premium itself, it's very good for the people who it is intended for.

[Ducky]

Currently, the people with premium have early access to the DLC+weapons. So right now, those weapons are premium-exclusive.
EDIT: Apparently, I am still living in the past. My bad, DLC is available for everyone by now.

Some of those weapons are also quite good, which means that non-premium players are at a disadvantage.
In most games, not buying the DLC just means you miss out on maps. In BF3, it means players can stomp on you because they have access to weapons you don't.

Thing with premium is, you're paying EA upfront in the hopes that they're actually going to produce quality DLC.
Usually, whenever DLC is about to be released, the devs will patch/update the game to make sure the playerbase is happy. The devs will also try to make quality DLC that people would want to buy.

Now, both of those things go out the window. They can leave the weapons unbalanced, and half-ass the DLC if they want, wouldn't matter because they've already made the money.

It all comes down to trust... and EA isn't exactly sitting on a trustworthy place considering that they flip-flop their opinions every other month.

[Blacktric]

"You (Blacktric) just think they're OP because a lot of people are using them, which they are doing because they're new."

Yes sure. Keep telling yourself that. I "know" they are overpowered because they are. AUG has incredible accuracy and fire rate and if you add a smoke grenade launcher to it, you literally become unstoppable.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

And there still isn't a fix for this or for the autospotting hacks that's been around for months. So please, take your Premium and your love for DICE and get out. People who actually invested themselves into these games knows what is actually going on.

[Zweihanders]

@fatoldman
couple issues here. Trust. If they cop out with the future DLC then they will lose a lot of support and fanbase which will work against them and lose them millions of dollars. They are not stupid enough to do this, especially when competeing with Activision. They don't want to lose the ground they just gained.

The weapons aren't better than anything you can get already. If you think otherwise, then you just don't know what you're talking about, sorry. If you're getting stomped it's because they're better than you at the game, not because someone is using a CQ gun. I have the guns, I'm using them, they're fine. New != better.

[Roper316]

of course they are, if people would stop supporting this kind of BS it would go away.

[Adexus]

At first I was also against the idea but if you get Premium you only save money on the DLC expansions and get extra (albeit pointless) stuff along with it.

I guess it's only a good deal if you plan on getting all of the expansions anyway and play the game a lot.

[guitarded77]

EA used to offer lots of free DLC with many of their games including Bad Company and now they just take what used to be free DLC and put it in the "Premium" package and tell you you're getting something you would have got anyway for free. When they had paid for DLC it was something huge like Battlefield Vietnam. This is just a way for them to get more money from the gamer... I'm saying this, and I like EA.

Here's one example... I'm not putting them all, I don't feel like working today. http://kotaku.com/385037/ba...

[Dojan123]

@guitarded77

You are 100% correct but we are long past those days(Unless it is Valve). We might as well take a discount if we enjoy the game since we know paid DLC is not going way.

[bumnut]

People save money by buying dlc they already had? Sure you get new ones later in the year but everyone already had Karkand dlc, and got no discount.

BF Premium has turned me off BF3 for good, I have played everyone since BF 1942.

Good job EA

[yoyo12121]

@bumnut
U still save 5 dollars
Stop being a cry baby no one likes a ass whole

[Adexus]

Well, if they didn't have a Premium package then you wouldn't have gotten the DLC expansions for free anyway :P

And the expansions are the same size as Vietnam, it's just that it doesn't change theme, you get 4 maps, extra weapons or vehicles with the expansions like you did for Vietnam, although I guess for that they were technically 'old' weapons.

As for the DLC for Bad Company I think it was EA's/Dices way of garnering a larger community for Bad Company since BC wasn't as popular online compared to when BC2 came out and the DLC they actually released for BC2 sucked, just different game modes on different maps... I do miss BC2 though.

[Zweihanders]

You're right. I totally hate them for releasing something as a bundle that will save me money. How dare they.. those money grubbing.. I'll just get each DLC individually for more money instead.. yea.. that'll show them who's boss.

[yoyo12121]

Haha yea best comment here^

[dazzrazz]

$75 for all separate pieces of DLC or $50 upfront... I think its a good dead for those who plan getting every piece of DLC for battlefield until March 2013

[akaakaaka]

good?
how could dlc be more expensive then the whole game?
and specially when users just to get this kind of dlc for free on the pc? last time i remember dlc was made to bring life to the online games but know is been use to milk the same game and if you keep support they will bring this to eah game and make it worse. $60 for a 7years old teach is expensive enough already, today games should cost at most $40 from day one and to be fair $30 because they are using old heap teach.

you and the rest who think is good are blind sheeps! and corp are making fun of you. I may respect you if you dare to buy all the dlc because you love the game, but to think is a good deal your a fools EA are evil, example they buy NFL right to be the only ones, they buys the team right in the futbol"soccer" games to get sales from there, they are bringing this online crap pass and keep doing evil things, they play dirty and they know their asual fans are sheep and will fall for it and abuse that power. WAKE UP!
next stape is that you will pay to play online, oh wait m$ is already doing it, but I can see a future where you got to pay the internet bill, a also bill to your internet provider to play on the ps or xbox and then you got t pay a monthly subscription t sony and m$ to also be able to go online on then and also pay and month bill to each game to be able to play online. YOU FOOLS ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS, BECAUSE YOU SUPPORT THIS KIND OF STUPIDITY RIP OFFS FROM THE CORPS. PLUS ALL THEY ARE DOING IS BRAINWASHING YOU AND WASTNG YOUR LOVELY TIMES IS SOMETHING USELESS. WAAAAKKKEE UP .

[dazzrazz]

I don't know if you noticed Mr. Playstation but Sony put optional PS+ subscription for a reason, they can't have free online service forever because it bleeds money. Anyway I rather pay $35 a year then have it for free with every second day maintenance. If you want game to cost $40 i suggest waiting for price drop

[yoyo12121]

how is $50 dollars more than $60?
The game is 60 dollars and premium is $50 I think you need to go back to second grade

[akaakaaka]

well without the "premium" its more mr. troll.

and Plus, is there to cash in $money$ but in a fair way(japon corp. have some kind of honor and respect for their customers) they and even m$ can have free online, but M$ charge because they are a corp. (corp. are evil, they don't care about you and only about the money) and they know people are fool enough to pay.

ps, why I have to spend time teaching n4g kids what life is about...

[guitarded77]

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

[ginsunuva]

Yay. Now Battlefield, NFS, and Fifa will turn into never-ending subscription services.
Or they might just make an all-encompassing EA subsciption that gives you all EA dlc, compelling people to buy other EA games.
Hooray for corporate greed and growth!
From now on games will be created by Chinese and Malaysian sweatshop workers on a tight bi-annual schedule.

[bumnut]

Buy Fifa premium to enable shots at goal!

[SKUD]

EA and its investors would like to thank you for your lack of fiscal responsibility.

[Syclonus]

so they double the price for half the game, then give you the cut content. >:/

[Hufandpuf]

DICE even said the game would have a lasting DLC plan well into next here.

Besides, 20+ maps and 20+ weapons is a great way to keep the game alive for me, not to mention the AC-130 and Motorbikes.

[LOL_WUT]

Please don't bring it to MoH.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

Can't wait for Battlefield 5 when the only weapon available for non-premium members is the M9....

[urwifeminder]

Ha fine if you can even log on had bf3 pc for 2 weeks had 2 games so many issues now i try to log on it cuts off my net ha wow do i have to do back ward flips to play on origin makes gfwl look like a champion can not believe the headaches.

[jaymart2k]

Like the 5 million plus selling Dead Space 3? Who are they kidding. Guess Dead Space 4 will never see the light of day.

[Skate-AK]

Next game that fits that is MOH.

[Hufandpuf]

"EA confirmed the Battlefield Premium service ($50 per year)"

Uh, no. Premium is a single pay service.