The previously rumoured Battlefield Premium service has been detailed and dated – but is it worth it?
Listed at the online retailer CoolShop, the paid subscription service is set to cost around £34.96 (R455.74*) and is slated for a 29 June launch date.
Subscribing is shown to give players early access to all BF3 DLC expansion packs. These include Back to Karkand (available now), Close Quarters (June), Armoured Kill (releasing September) and End Game (scheduled for December).
Another yet-to-be-announced expansion has also been outed by MP1st, as is expected to be called Aftermath.
Currently, the full offer from Battlefiled Premium includes:
- 20 Maps
- 20 New Weapons
- 10+ New Vehicles
- 4+ New Game Modes
- 30+ Assignments
- 20+ Dog Tags
- Back to Karkand
- Close Quarters in June 2012
- Armored Kill in Fall 2012
- Aftermath in late 2012
- End Game in Spring 2013
It seems as if EA are taking a note out of Call of Duty: Elite’s book, but do you think the service is worth the subscription fee?
*Exchange rates calculated at time of article.
Sources: CoolShop & MP1st
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Well If you already have Back to Karkand and got it with the pre-order limited edition, and If I’m not Mistaken each DLC will cost around U$10-15. The subscription would work out cheaper if you have NO DLC yet. if you have the first one, then it might work out cheaper to get each DLC separately. But I’m not sure if every DLC will cost exactly the same. Announcing subscription after the initial release is the better option. Instead of Launching the game with a R800 Price tag which would have included premium subscription, it would not have sold the same amount of copies.
Since Collectors Editions have now become a NEW ILLNESS OF a Gaming trend. I would Strongly Pre-dict that Battlefield 4 Will come as a collector’s edition which might include “premium subscription” as well, or 2 Versions of the collector’s edition one which includes premium subscription and one that excludes the premium subscription. Either way.
We can expect every single “major AAA” title to have a Collector’s edition available for pre-order.
After the major Success of WOW, subscription based games have been sprouting like mushrooms on a corpse in a dark moist forest. The gaming community have “widely excepted” such business practices to become the norm as long as the content is always fresh and arrives as often as possible.
DLC I don’t have a problem with, as I think I can afford it, but does not mean I’m going to invest in DLC often. DLC gets most annoying when it gets to the point where you can clearly see its been removed from the “retail” copy and sold separately as the mythical extra content. I understand that as a business its a way to continue to bring in revenue even after sales have dipped because the product is not as attractive as it was when it was first released.
And that is the problem.
Many games lose their diamond glittering shimmer of joy and entertainment after a couple of months, I’d say 6 months give or take. But there is hope.
Free-To-Play products in most cases started from nothing and minuscule user base and if the product is successful to lets say 20 000 on people they will literally market the game for you. Imagine having 20 000 marketers than pay you to market your product. The growth will go up steady until you reach about 100 000-150 000 players playing that F2P if still successful and the product is fun after 6 months, the user base will explode 10 fold in the next 6 months.
Free-To-Play is risky unless you have a solid business plan and small things that you planned to sell. In many a case 1 Large complete product will sell less and make less money than many small chunks/products that is “perceived” cheaper, but can add up to quite a bit of cash.
All I can say is that in the next 3-5 years there is only going to be 2 types of games, Subscription based or Free-To-play, the genre does not matter any more, only thing that matters is money (understandable since each company have expenses and in order to develop the next title they need funds). But the quality in the product and continued support for that game will determine the success of the company.
Best Example I can give at this moment (before the Activision-Blizzard abomination merge) is Blizzard. Which in fact seem to be doing their own thing still even after the merger even though is good to adapt blizzard, lately you have been losing your roots. Adapting dumbed down mentality of Activision. Blizzard’s losing sight of its roots and target market.
Anyways.. DLC.. each DLC is like a bitter pill to swallow, but its not a blue pill red pill situation, and isn’t forced on the players. Pay for whatever fits your pocket.
iTile -Out for coffee :>