EA boss applauds Call of Duty Elite - Battlefield subscription inbound?

EA CEO John Riccitiello has tipped his hat to publishing rival Activision for successfully introducing a subscription offering for the Call of Duty franchise - and hinted at the possibility of something similar in the pipeline for Battlefield.

[Hufandpuf]

If they implement a subscription service in battlefield, then I'm done with the franchise. And I know a lot of fans will agree with me on that one.

[scrambles]

same here. Terrible idea. Makes the developers already have the money so they dont need to worry bout quality of map pack considering they already have the money. AND we should even be paying for map packs at all! I'd only pay for expansions if theyre quality and large. I hate videogames anymore...

[decrypt]

There was a day and age when FPS online games were limited to the PC. PC gamers by nature are more tech inclined and know that stuff like maps can be made by the community. Hence it kinda hard to get them to pay for such stuff.

Console gamers on the otherhand are the masses, most of them are very casual about their gameplay. Hell most of them wouldnt even know whats inside the plastic boxes they do play on. Hence are easy prey for these companies to charge for things like maps, weapons skins etc. Which is why companies do get away with charging them to even go online.

Unfortunately because its so easy for these companies to take advantage of the masses, the spill over effect has made its way to PC gaming as well. Basically they try and shackle PC gamers they same way they do so to the console crowd. In recent history games like COD or Battlefield no longer support mods or user made content, even though COD MW1 supports mods etc they were in later releases taken away because these companies do not like to give freedom to gamers instead they would rather charge.

Gone are the days when there was such a thing known as freedom toward the gaming community. Today even if it does exist it exists on games from Valve such as TF2. We can thank our friendly neighborhood consoles for this feat.

Bottomline is as long as console gamers are willing to bendover this sort of stuff will only keep getting worse. Wake up console gamers, ask for Mod capabilities on your consoles we know it can be done, UT on PS3 proved it. How i wonder why console gamers blindly support their platform of choice instead of asking for any sort of freedom.

[ljh217]

@decrypt: Yeah, console gamers started WW1 & WW2 as well /s.

There are plenty of games on console that have thrived on having their own map makers. Look at Halo Reach, Trials HD and Little Big Planet, just to name a few. Console gamers are not solely to blame for the actions of big, greedy, money hungry corporations like Activision and EA. Surely the fact it's happening on PC as well (showing it's not restricted to console gamers), proves that.

Actually, PC games have been getting expansions from before the turn of the century and those gamers have lapped them up, so I would argue that the practice originated on PC, and not consoles.

[Solid_Snake37]

@decrypt wow are you serious? You are blaming console players? GTFO

[Soldierone]

it's a trend that has been around long before Elite every was mentioned. It is the "passes" that several games have had now. It changes names per game. Like uncharted its the Treasure Pass or something, you pay 20 bucks and get ALL DLC "free"

IF Battlefield were to do that I'd gladly pay for it if their DLC stays above average like it is since I will be buying them all anyways. If it turns into COD DLC, then no, i'll pass.

[Trunkz]

First of all, they never said they would do this, they just hinted something like that for other titles, most likely the Next Medal of Honor.

Let's pretend they did tho, they would have to dig themselves out of one big hole because they have already said over and over that their server is FREE, and will never have to pay for such things. They know they will lose more Battlefield fans doing this then gaining money from the subscriptions.

[Seventh_Blood_Reborn]

I think the same, if they implement some sort of subscription BF3 would be the last one game of the series for me.

[Shackdaddy836]

Ya, I've bought every single BF game in the franchise (some multiple times) and if they implement a subscription, I'm done. I'll find some other game to love...

[DFresh]

Yeah it's B.S but you can still get the DLC later on without getting the subscription. Granted it'll be 1-2 months later but you can still get it.
There are ways around it you know.

[hiredhelp]

so we have here £40 = game
Tied to a online Pass
And now a possible subscription.
lets hope this isnt the case.

[Pandamobile]

F that.

[Majin-vegeta]

Oh f*** off.

[DazeLokrotan]

Self-absorbed nerd: It's a business. Making money is the point.

Me: So then I guess it's ok for arms salesmen to sell guns to genocidal militias in Africa huh? After all, it's a business and making money is the point. The problem of the victims (gamers and the African civilians) should certainly be none of their concern.

Real classic self-absorbed nerds. Real f*****g classic.

[zeal0us]

Best analogy I have seen in a long time.

[Fez]

Not that great, comparing video games to death. Video games, or death? First world problems...

[Montrealien]

That is far from a good analogy, it is horrible in fact. However would not be suprised if your average N4G user finds it appealing.

[trenso1]

Haha. F**k that, the day they do that is the day I quit the franchise. Or at least it better just be for battle log

[Hicken]

Not if DICE has anything to say about it, I'd wager.

Sometimes, I think it'd be nice if publishers just stayed out of the way of the developers and let them do their thing. And by sometimes, I mean ALMOST EVERY TIME.

[MrGunny94]

They'll do with Medal of Honor NOT with Battlefield.. DICE won't allow

[Seventh_Blood_Reborn]

I don' t know for sure, but I think EA has the last word ... I don' t see how DICE could force EA to change their idea if they go for subscription :(

[negroguy]

Well looks like Ill just be a standard player in battlefield. I'm not really into all the statistics if they do implement this.

[Agent_hitman]

there's too many pay to play games these days, and I don't want another one.

[Dovahkiin]

You pay £40/$60 to play the f****** game, that is enough for the devs to make a profit. Greed is all it is.

[Rob Hornecker]

I have always been under the thinking that EA/Dice wanted to make BF3 as different from the CoD series as night is to day!

To me it says that gaming is becoming all about GREED! Its starting to seem like when we thought we were getting the battlelog access for free is now seeming like a SCAM.DLC should be a option for each owner of the game to download at there will. If and when they can afford it. I refused to buy Elite edition of MW3 just for that reason. Lets see $60 for the game and another $50 for the subscription service.

If this is what there BIG news on friday is going to be all about,Well I feel they just shot them selfs in the HEAD!

Even though I love BF3 and will continue to enjoy it the DLC through a service like this better be EXCELLENT or it could kill the series off!

Ofcourse this could all be BS and not happen at all. Lets see what they have to say on the 10th.

[artdafoo]

If BF3 was as good as Bad Co 2 in terms of overall balance and gameplay and mechanics then I would be the fist to sign up. BF3 is just to full of bugs and unbalanced weapons and crap for them to try and offer a subscription. I'm really hoping they iron the kinks in Frostbite 2 in time for MOH 2 and deff Bad Co 3, which I honestly will be 100% better than BF3. They just added way to much crap for the sake of adding it without really thinking it through. Hey DICE theres already a game out that does that shit every year, we don't need you trying that crap too.

[Starbucks_Fan]

.

[SKUD]

I can understand how most publishers envy how activision has successfully extracted every single penny from its COD fan base. Pumping in millions of dollars. The down side is they have created such a negative pricing trend, it forces other companies to try and achieve the same results or similar. Very few games offer a good balance of cost to performance ratio. DLC is quickly becoming another form of cancer on the gamers wallet.

Its becoming more difficult to justify the extra cost let alone the MSRP for new games. For the smart gamer (shopper) at least. Must be nice to have more money then sense.

[gazgriff2k12]

i think they will do there dlc like la noire release them and then offer a discounted bundle

[gcolley]

if they do this they better leave the BC2 servers going for a long time

[Noticeably_FAT]

COD Elite is simply a "Season Pass". They didn't invent it and certainly aren't the only guilty party. You can get all the stat tracking, clan based options for free. The only part of "Elite" that is really worth anything is the DLC, which you get a break in price if you normally would be buying all the maps anyway.

EA already does something similar with their sports games, plus they have online passes, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see them implement a season pass like Elite for their DLC.

[AzaziL]

anyone else NOT surprised with EA heading towards this direction?

From a publisher that would rather buy out the licenses for sports games then to make a better product, put real world ads in Battlefield 2142, and creates their own 'Steam' so only they can sell their own games online...

It's funny how Activision gets ripped as the evil one when in fact, EA isn't that much better either. The gaming industry would be much better if those two didn't exist.

[BiggsnWedge]

Don't worry since it's EA and Battlefield 3 everyone will be for it cause you know, it's Battlefield right? Hurray! /s

[FunkMacNasty]

And this is the quote from the article that scares me:

"We've got plans for all of our major franchises to turn them into more of... games for service that have a constant flow of downloadable content."
--EA's John Riccitello

Notice the pause after he says "turn our games into more of..." It's like he's pausing as if to think of the most appropriate and least inflammatory term possible! (an incomplete product that nickels and dimes players to death for all the content)???????

Given all the negativity all over the internet over the past few weeks with the way Acti has handled the pricing of Elite versus it's content availability, you would think CoD's competitors ('specially the BF franchise) would want to steer clear of this type of comparison. EA has the money and power to really bury the CoD franchise, but they need to do the opposite of the nickel-and-dime DLC scheming that Acti has made so popular to really accomplish market superiority. They need to show their fans (especially the BF fans who are also CoD fans) that they really care about them and care about making and supporting a superiour product to their competitiors. To do that, they need to avoid a subscription service, and continue to offer not simply map packs, but "expansion" packs of the same quality and quantity of content as B2K or BF:BC2 Vietnam at a reasonable price. IMO that's the only way that EA can control the shooter market as they desire. They need to be Robin Hood and let CoD be viewed as the Hamburgler.