Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

[Shawn Zipay]

In a recent interview with Venture Beat, EA Games' Patrick Soderlund stated how the company is looking into a Call of Duty ELITE like system for future Battlefield titles. Soderlund oversees some of EA's biggest franchises including Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Need for Speed, and Dead Space.

Do you think you’ll eventually get to a subscription type of model? And do you also think you’re going to take down Call of Duty?

"I think it’s fair to say that we’re looking at that. Like all other companies, we’re looking at how we can maximize our investment in this and get the most out of our investment and get more people playing this product. That may take us to different places, but we’re not really talking about where that is yet.

When it comes to taking Call of Duty down, you know what? I don’t look at it like that. We are in this business because we want to make the best possible products. Call of Duty is a shooter, but it’s a different shooter. And I think they have a market; we have a market. I’m fine with what I’m doing. I’m going to continue innovating and doing as best as I can with my teams. Hopefully that’s going to lead us to more units [sold] and more happy consumers."

This is certainly not that surprising of news to anybody who has been keeping up with what's going on with Battlefield. There were similar comments and rumors made weeks, if not months ago now. However, if you are interested in reading more from Patrick Soderlund, be sure to check out the full interview. He also discusses the upcoming Medal of Honor game and divulges a few more behind-the-scenes activities at EA.

[Crzy_Puffin]

/facepalm

[jimykx]

Re: Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

curse them for even thinking about such a thing
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This word is replacing the word "F**k", because yeah, that's how I feel about this

[Lil'Ruff]

Re: Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

/facepalm

nuff said

[nemes1s3000]

Patrick Soderlund and the entirety of EA are absolutely out of their minds. They expect, that by adding an annual subscription fee -- just to play a damn FPS game -- will attract more people to play the game? And on top of that he adds, "We are in this business because we want to make the best possible products." That is quite possibly the stupidest quote to ever come out of EA's, COD and BF have been at war since 2002 - 2003, both companies have been fighting to see who reigns supreme when it comes to being the #1 FPS developer.

[KINGDarkyDizzle]

Re: Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

correct me if I am wrong because I don't know the whole story here....But if a sort of "elite" membership say of $50/year would get me all eligible DLC's throughout the year as well as some other trivial perks, I don't see where this is awful. I mean at least for me personally. I already fully plan to buy the remaining 3 DLC's. Guessing they will be $15/ea. That's $45 i'm gonna spend regardless. Is that sort of the case? Or am I way off base?

[Vreki]

Re: Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

correct me if I am wrong because I don't know the whole story here....But if a sort of "elite" membership say of $50/year would get me all eligible DLC's throughout the year as well as some other trivial perks, I don't see where this is awful. I mean at least for me personally. I already fully plan to buy the remaining 3 DLC's. Guessing they will be $15/ea. That's $45 i'm gonna spend regardless. Is that sort of the case? Or am I way off base?

We dont know, they just said that they were considering it.
Your argument is valid, if the core game still comes with full content. You know that BF3 already got a lot of flak for its limited amount of maps. That could get even worse as developers want to create a demand for DLC.

[Stev0esque]

Re: Pay-to-Play Battlefield is Still Being 'Looked At' for the Future

Don't take this the wrong way, wasn't there actually a Debate about whether the Battlefield series should go Pay2Play here back around the BF2 era? It was in response to the lack of support DICE gave the game, I mean, not getting a patch after 2 years... or in 2142's case... not getting a final version...