Day one DLC? Limited edition weapons and items unavailable to other players? Lets clarify this...
As I discussed with a few of you on Ventrilo a few days ago, it seems theres been quite the uproar recently over Battlefield 3's recently announced Limited Edition Physical Warfare Pack.
It seemed at the time that the items included - the Type 88 LMG, DAO-12 shotgun, Flash Suppresser, and Flechette ammo - were available only to people who preordered this pack, and would never be released for purchase by non-preorder customers. The pack also contains a number of maps featured in previous Battlefield games, such as Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula, and Strike at Karkand.
Yesterday, however, DICE responded by stating that "...the Physical Warfare Pack is a time-based exclusive. If you do not pre-order Battlefield 3 at a retailer carrying the Physical Warfare Pack, don’t worry. We will unlock the contents of the Physical Warfare Pack for free to all Battlefield 3 players later this year." They went on to say that "if you pre-order Battlefield 3, you will be able to play Back to Karkand [the title of the limited edition/DLC map pack] at no extra charge as soon as it is released, but it is not day one DLC and it is not on the base game disc." So if you don't preorder, you'll have to pay 'extra' for Karkand et al. later on.
The whole 'limited edition maps on day one' thing seems like a very odd decision to me, since it will likely split the community in a similar fashion to that of Bad Company 2: Vietnam. That is to say, either the community will be divided between two sets of maps, or one set of maps (Vietnam in that case) will only be played by a handful of people after a few months.
Still, with four months to go, theres no need to cancel your preorders yet. Perhaps in the meantime we could refresh our skills with a little Bad Company 2? We had 8 people playing it together on Vent last night and it was an absolute blast.
- Frenz
