DICE has entered the Dark Side - Lied to gamers about Battlefield 3's Mod Tools

DSOGaming writes: "Remember back in July 2011, when DICE claimed that Frostbite 2 was too complex and that was the reason why the company did not release mod tools for Battlefield 3? Well, they were lying. We knew back then that there was something fishy but our guess back then was that DICE decided to lock Battlefield 3 because the release of those mod tools would ruin their DLC plans. We were partiartly right, as the company has planned BF3′s DLCs long before the game’s launch. However, it seems that there was and another reason that forced DICE to lie when it came to the game’s modding tools."

[chukamachine]

And?

It's within their bloody rights not to release said code.

What about COD. They sell packs nobody wants.

A friend of mine just wants the zombie maps, not 1 fking map with aload of mp maps.

At least BF3 is giving the option of different gameplay.

But BF4 coming so soon is a major NO NO.

BF4 should have been on other planets.

pussie stick to the same tried and tested stuff.

[rdgneoz3]

It is well within their rights to not release the code. However, it doesn't look so good on their part when they lie to their customers.

[da_2pacalypse]

Not sure how anybody expected this to actually happen. You guys think EA would allow for something to be released into the public hands that may affect their DLC purchase numbers?

[john2]

Releasing mod tools is not the same with releasing the source code. DICE should be more honest with its fanbase

[knowyourstuff]

Dice has no reason to compromise its business of overcharging people for maps - they know that gamers are willing to bend over and take it up the ass spending 60 bucks just on a few more map packs and a few more guns, and a few other perks no one cares about, so of course they're not going to give access to the source code and allow mods before they release all DLC, that's just smart business. They're in the business of making money, this is EA we're talking about, the company that charges just to go online, and is looking to gouge for whatever it can get. Look up Agency Theory and you'll see the reason why EA and all other companies for that matter make the decisions they make.

[yoyo12121]

I don't see how they lied
They said they weren't comfortable about real easing mod tools and said its a scary business

And I'd rather have a secure game than a bunch of hackers running around shooting walls and getting kills

And the game is great without mod tools

[Flavor]

Money changes everything, don't it? They didn't want to say this up front because they would lose sales, that's all. They gain in the short run with DLC sold to suckers, but shoot themselves in the gut in the long term by trashing their franchise and burning up the loyalty of their fans.

Without modding capability, it's just a goofy twitch shooter with some slapped on vehicles, and half assed customization which is even less in depth than CoD.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Yea but you shouldn't lie to your customers. I don't mind hpw fast BF4 comes as long as it's good.

[ALLWRONG]

"What about COD. They sell packs nobody wants."

I think you need to check that (and I don't even like CoD)

[Soldierone]

A simple answer they could have given is "we are not releasing the mod tools, however have lots of DLC coming to keep players entertained."

That in itself says "we are not releasing them because we have DLC" but doesn't straight up say it. Its a lot better than lying and saying its because of hacks.....

[StayStatic]

"Those ‘hacking’ excuses are as bogus as the fact that Frostbite 2 was a really complex engine."

Not really , BF3 would be flooded with hackers otherwise , not saying they don't exist but come on of course there going to lie because consumers will complain regardless , easier just to come up with a ruse.

I mean come on think about it , if they told us the truth , the end result would still be the same , for example:

DICE says : "We will not be releasing mod tools because we want to protect our code from hackers and not allow mods tools to interfere with our DLC distribution."

What would be the response to that ? , probably similar I imagine along the lines of:

"EA/DICE suck" . but the game sales would probably be hindered.

Diablo 3 went the same route with hiding code and is barley piratable outside of an item emulator iirc , just face it the end user will always suffer as a result of pirates and hackers as well as big publishers pushing to maximise profits.

It really is a sad state of affairs.

[john2]

The thing is that we already got a lot of hackers with aimbots and such things. Can't see how the mod tools would make things worse, especially when DICE is introducing new glitches with their own patches :P

[StayStatic]

"Can't see how the mod tools would make things worse"

That is what worries me the most , you hand over the keys , not sure what kind of havoc can be stirred up , maybe DICE is covering up security holes while EA wants to distribute DLC packs so it makes sense from there perspective of things to be like this.

Now COD on the other hand already had mod tools , dedicated servers with COD 4 and Activsion took those away and treats the PC community like dirt in comparison to EA/DICE who just added in an annoying client and didn't release mod tools.

I don't really have a problem with battlelog because it runs faster and is a lot less clunky than the in-game BF2 browser tbh.

Guess what I am saying is be careful what you wish for , neither company is a saint but one will screw you over a lot more than the other in the long run, depending on your gaming background of course.

[AstroZombie1]

Not so much lied more lead along.

[Mythicninja]

Compare to CD Projekt Red who gives away free DLC, and mod tools. I'll add DICE to the list of companies like bioware who I'll not bother myself with.

[Ducky]

I think the root of the problem here is just EA... or most big publishers in general.

[Hufandpuf]

you should look up how many people pirated that game.

(A LOT)

[aliengmr]

Actually it wasn't much more than most big releases and they still made a good profit. The number also doesn't indicate how many actually ended buying it after pirating a copy.

[Mythicninja]

....irrelevant to the subject

[bubblebeam]

True. While CD Projekt RED are one of the best developers, they trusted peoples good will too much. It had over 4 or 5 million pirates (the witcher 2). Don't know how many lost sales that was but I'd say over a million at least.

They also gave 360 one of its best games, which is funny because they are a pc dev.If only they had more money so they could bring the 2nd to ps3 as well.

I don't like EA at all. They are even worse than activision. The only thing they EA had over Activision is that they didn't milk games AS MUCH, now they are going the milk route.

In short, I only buy products from 2K, Ubi, THQ Sony and Microsoft. EA and Activision don't care about us gamers, they would throw us under the bus for their non-gaming 50 year old share holders.

[atticus14]

Ubisoft is probably the worst of all lol.

[Pandamobile]

This is pretty much the way it is/will be with all developers under major publishers.

As much as I imagine DICE wanted to give us some tools to use, the higher ups at EA probably shut them down pretty quickly because you can't exactly profit off of it.

[TronEOL]

Seeing how EA handled this with Dragon Age 2 from Origins, and how Mass Effect got harder to mod, and you can even get banned (unless this is changed now) for modding any files for ME3 on Origin, it's sort of easy to see why they couldn't tell the reason.

EA doesn't see money in allowing gamers to create things themselves. It's easier to block it, and release DLC.

[ATi_Elite]

Don't care!

I'll be playing Arma 3 and Planetside 2!

Battlefield is DEAD to me

Battlefield Born 1942-Died BF3

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Yes Planetside 2!! But there will be just one reason to check out BF4..
http://www.engadget.com/201...
First ever game to do this..

[sovietsoldier]

i have been playing games in all forms since the 80's and i have to say the industry is getting back to the ET days where it may soon collapse in on its self from greed and bad ideas. its sad really such great potential and skill wasted by greed and power.

[urwifeminder]

Ive moved to the arma series thanks dice for the good times lol.

[SJPFTW]

LOL BF2 had some of the best mods ever and added to the longevity to that game. Serious I guess that means no new Project Reality game using the Frostbite engine.

Sad because the vanilla maps were bad and the community would have created way better content than that close quarters rubbish

[Qrphe]

Well, we've at least got Red Orchestra 2 content and Arma 3 coming out!!!

[PixL]

Sure, they should give away their intellectual property because a bunch of bored students demand so.

[SoulAssassin808]

Title is misleading. DICE never lied, they just used common sense and are with the time. Mod tools are a thing of the past. How many games in the past year have been released with mod tools?

[will313]

At least 4 or 5 really good ones actually. Skyrim, The Witcher 2, Civ V: Gods and Kings, DOTA 2, Borderlands 2(will allow it I beleive). There are still really good games that have them. Not really a great excuse.

[CheexInk]

I'm confused why he decided to post this article now. It's not like he brought any new information to light.

"Remember back in July 2011.." Yes, I do, back when there were a dozen of these articles and they were still topical.

[will313]

I wouldn't care if they don't release mod tools. I just wish they didn't feed people horse shit excuses about why it's not happening. Yes they are within their rights to not release tools. Yes, It makes smart business sense, due merely to the sales you generate from map/expansion packs. Yes games(myself included ) will flock to the series regardless and give them their money. All I ask is for the love of God don't insult my intelligence, most of us are not nearly that damn gullible. If you don't want to do it fine, but I would do nicely without the smoke being blown up my ass. You can't say you are trying to prevent hackers in a game that's already been hacked. I think it's bad that PC gamers are being denied mod tools, merely because a lot of great ideas are spawned from community mods, hate to sound like a broken record but as good as they are EA does tend to ruin good things(gaming wise) with their business first agenda.

[DieKommissar]

I like the "shitty" battlelog...