EA confirms the existence of Battlefield 3 'Premium' service

[Shawn Knight]

EA is planning to launch a “Premium” service for Battlefield 3 that’s sounding a lot like what Activision did with their Elite service in Modern Warfare 3. News of the membership came to light via a leaked fact sheet out of Germany but don’t brush this aside as another baseless rumor; EA has confirmed that Battlefield Premium will be announced on June 4.

The one-time fee of $50 will grant players access to the five released expansion packs as well as two weeks early access to future packs and the ability to reset stats. There’s also another member perk that Joystiq describes as “pretty gross.”

According to the leaked document, premium members will get queue priority into servers. That’s right, if you pay $50 you essentially get to skip the line when trying to join a game. Meanwhile everyone else is pushed further down the queue list. It will be interesting to see how this plays out – depending on how many gamers sign up for the premium service, this could either be a non-issue or potentially generate lot of hatred from Joe Gamer.

The idea of bundling all of the expansion packs into a single purchase actually saves gamers a bit of money in the long run. The model has proven successful with the Call of Duty franchise as it has amassed 2 million paying subscribers.

EA has confirmed the existence of the Premium service on Twitter and says that users should check out Battlefield.com on June 4 for more info. This date just happens to coincide with the company’s E3 press conference so there’s a possibility that they could launch the service on the same day.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/48843-ea-confirms-the-existence-of-battlefield-3-premium-service.html

 

[oldikes]

One time fee of $50? if I ever get serious about battlefield 3, im doing that fo sho.

 

[Guest]

Funny how BF3 owners used to make fun of "brainless" COD owners who pay for useless services such as Elite. Now it looks like BF3 owners will be just another "brainless" set of players, except on the PC. It's interesting how the most popular games now (COD, BF3) are mindless shooters while so many gamers keep asking for innovation. Nah, BF4, 5, 6, COD 11, 12, 13, here we come.......with quarterly DLCs and Premium Service.

The single player rewarding campaign gaming is slowly dying because the drones just want to shoot random things and keeping paying fees to do it. The industry loves it since they keep reusing the same fundamental FPS model from a decade ago to achieve massive profits.

 

[Guest]

I cannot believe this bullshit, good thing is that I have never bought a DLC, I did it once with MW2, and regret it the same day, but never again, too bad im the only one , because statistically it seems like she scheme works, charge 60 for the game, and then $10, $5 , hey $20 ahhhh make it $50 and you get a lot of virtual ****

 

[Guest]

I've been a gamer for over a decade and finally to my surprise I got bored to the point that I may never consider myself a gamer again. I'll play from time to time, but will never be passionate about it again. Based on this news and the direction the industry is headed in general, my timing couldn't have been better. Gaming will never be what it once was and from my pov that's not just bad, it's a deal breaker.

 

[Adhmuz]

Guess I'll add to the negativity, this practice of releasing a game at $70 and then asking your community to fork over another $50 to get more in game crap, yes CRAP. This is nothing more than a money grab, a really easy one on EA's part to boot. Shooters just aren't fun anymore, too much bs getting in the way of the game, more so for someone who just wants to play casually. I use to enjoy playing BF2 with my friends, just jump in a random server and it was more or less balanced. Can't say the same thing about BF3, try to play that and things are constantly blowing up, your being shot from the middle of nowhere and its by people who just sit and play it all damn day. I'm no interested anymore so I digress, FPS games can do as they please, I'm not buying the big names anymore they are as good as dead to me. I'm with the third guest, been gaming for over a decade and in recent years have grown more and more disinterested with the idea of sitting in front of a screen and not doing anything, because we all know thats what gaming really is, a big waste of time.

 

[Guest]

This is Total BS..Sounds like Activision's kinda stunts.I was talking to some clan members about the reserve slot for $$$..Because they kept asking when are they going to activate it on the server.Told them they are waiting a way to charge you to use reserve slot feature..So we have to PAY to go to the ahead of the line on our own Clan server we rent.Is total Bull****.
GREED!! has once again struck another Software/Distribution company.Taking tips from Wall st.
$10 a piece for the DLC isn't a bad price.But just the way they are going about doing it.(n)(n)

 

[Guest]

For one, you might want to rethink about what all you said. CoD is a mindless shooter, that requires last minute situations 24/7, not giving time to strategize or cope with team-mates. BF does just that, while including different aspects of battle to perfect, Infantry, Vehicle, Coordination, ect. Also CoD's Not-So-Elite service makes you pay $60, not $50 like BF, and for what? Map packs....Oooo so awesome! (That was sarcasm) And a stats and communication service, that BF already had for base game members, aka Battlelog. BF Premium sounds more mature that "Elite", not to mention, not only do we get new maps, but new weapons, new vehicles, new achievments/trophies/ect., new game modes, new skins, must I keep going? So seriously, if you really think BF is a mindless shooter with a mindless paid service, then fine, look like a *****. EA/Dice is giving their fans their money's worth, while Activision/Infinity/Tre-Arch just feed of their fans like a backstabbing idol, that is too stuck up to see how lucky they should be as a business.
Try arguing with that.

 

[Guest]

I really enjoy playing Battlefield 3 multiplayer. But I won't pay another 50 bucks, already payed for Karkand expansion pack. If it messes things up too badly and I can't get into games, or get killed too easy by new weapons, forget it. I'll move on.

 

[Guest]

well worth it 49.99 gets you all the expansion packs one expansion pack will cost atleast 15.00

 

[lipe123]

BF3 is still being played?

I was so stoked for it, played for 2 months and quit before I broke my monitor. A game about teamwork with no incentive or gui to accommodate teamwork, no voice chat, just.. nothing is the most frustrating piece of junk ever.

The key remap feature still would not work 2 months after the game was launched. EA is dead to me.

 

[Guest]

Stop complaining about spending $50 the dlc's have content that your gonna want plus with premium you save money

 

[Guest]

[FONT=Helvetica]lipe123 you are obviously blind it has all those things and I am guessing you are a die hard cod fan that only played BF3 for less than a minute. To all those people saying BF3 is like CoD get your heads out of the ground and second off BF3 premium is not a Subscription its a one time payment and you get a hell of a lot more than CoD Elite.... Plus atleast BF3 isn't milking you with copy+paste maps and bringing out $20+ useless map packs every 1-2 weeks. BF3 gameplay and graphics, maps etc are well above CoD's in terms of quality, quantity and overall gameplay seriously now guys stop bashing on this its a good thing for people that don't have map packs etc I personally can't wait as I love BF3 it requires more team work and less spray, pray.[/FONT]

 

[pmkrefeld]

Thank you EA for giving me another reason for staying away from your crappy games.

 

[pmkrefeld]

<p><span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica'"><a href="https://www.techspot.com/community/members/lipe123.138827/" class="internalLink">lipe123</a> you are obviously blind it has all those things and I am guessing you are a die hard cod fan that only played BF3 for less than a minute. To all those people saying BF3 is like CoD get your heads out of the ground and second off BF3 premium is not a Subscription its a one time payment and you get a hell of a lot more than CoD Elite.... Plus atleast BF3 isn't milking you with copy+paste maps and bringing out $20+ useless map packs every 1-2 weeks. BF3 gameplay and graphics, maps etc are well above CoD's in terms of quality, quantity and overall gameplay seriously now guys stop bashing on this its a good thing for people that don't have map packs etc I personally can't wait as I love BF3 it requires more team work and less spray, pray.</span></span></p>

you forgot about the free espionage software you get with it,
I seriously hate all of you who ignore all the things publishers
like EA or Ubisoft do to the Community and say "F*$% that, this
game awesome, so what EA can have all of my data blah blah"
or better C 4 urself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e-LE0ycgkBQ


btw "reset stats"? after some experience in BFBC2 it looks rather dangerously to me.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

I bet all the suckers who paid EA $40 for unlocks because they don't have enough skill and/or time to devote to the online gameplay will buy this!

 

[Guest]

Just Wow I own all the BF titles no more I will be focusing on golden eye source as it is a free HL2 mod and I love bond games

this is very sad ea I can not believe your going to make us fork out more money for the product we got...

this is what I call corporate greed

 

[Guest]

This is so bull. In australia, we have to pay 100 bucks for a copy of the game. Each DLC costs from 20-25 bucks. Now they want 80 bucks extra? I'll probably be bored of this piece of crap made by a money hungry studio. There is absolutely no point in buying this crap. And if I had already bought the game, why am I blocked from buying the damn dlc? If we as the consumers have already payed to use their services, then why are we forced to pay extra if we want to get the actual dlc on its announced release date. I bought bf3 to get away from all the bull which was stirred by mw3. Seems that this is the last EA game that I will ever buy.

 

[McNasty]

Here is my argument to that BS you're writing...

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/241306/dice-well-never-charge-for-battlefield-maps/

True

 

[McNasty]

I know this, you know this, and EA knows this. Tools are made to be USED, thats what their for, thats why their made, to be used......

 

[Guest]

I must say. The premium service is more like a expansion pack then the horrible cod dlcs. I mean, Its just like the quake 2 expansion packs back in the day but better for bf3.

-ALLEN2