Exploding_Silver

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/te...in&oref=slogin

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Relmar

Lets give EA a round of applause for pissing all over everyone's hopes and dreams for the next Battlefield game.

jazy2

That sounds like good news for us gamers! I hope the in-game ads don't take too much from the gameplay though. And the purchase of upgrades had better not be abused. If handled properly this could be greatest thing to happen in gaming in the last 20 years!

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PanzerHans

I am very skeptical to this move by EA. As we all know there is no thing as a free lunch. This is a move to increase revenue on the battlefield series. It looks as they are going to sell gear that will somehow enhance game play. If this is guns or just wacky costumes, weŽll see. A not completely unrealistic scenario would be tier unlocks only available if you pay.

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draeh

From the toony picture, it looks like Team Fortress Battlefield to me.

Also changing game play so that rounds only last 10 to 15 minutes. Hmmm. I'm skeptical.

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Zephyr

Too many chefs spoil the soup (is what I have to say about all the new ideas being pushed into it) but it may not matter how borked it is if they can tap the large casual market successfully.

This really underscores the major difference between 3rd party publishers + Microsoft/Sony versus Nintendo: The prior care only about profit and accordingly how to make the best system in order to the profit from it. In a sense, they create virtual worlds rather than games because worlds can be profitable.

Nintendo, conversely, is a company that is consumer/client oriented; it will always create the games that its players want and will go to incredible extents, investing hundreds of millions of US dollars from profits straight back into R&D, to assure their clients that they will get what they want.

Prime example (pun intended) Metroid Prime 3. It didn't have to happen, and it hasn't even become a million seller, but Nintendo, unlike many other companies, knew not to scrap it because the series had a loving fanbase that they were responsible to. I can't think of any decent American company, with the possible and notable exception of Valve, to ascribe to this sense of consumer responsibility.

Besides, as Nintendo has shown, if you are consumer oriented, you win in the long term because rather than arguing how you can increase market share you are consolidating a base of assured profits and have much better chances of hitting it big through having your folks in R&D figure out what people want (The Wii), rather than listening to the hawks in marketing arguing what would be best for the company (The PS3/EA's new marketing scheme).

-Zephyr

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Exploding_Silver

... more links

another news article
www.battlefield-heroes.com (official website, but empty of anything at all)

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RedForman

Wow, really didn't see them going this direction...

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Zephyr

You mean the $$$ direction? Would have been nice, but companies are getting wind of the fact that photorealistic graphics and gameplay depth actually alienate more demographics than they include. The era of the hardcore gamer is being eclipsed, if you ask me, by the very companies that make their games jumping ship for the cash cow.

-Zephyr

__________________
You were once like the newbie who needed a hand from above and TacticalGamer gave you it.

You owe the newbie who comes after you that same outstretched hand from above on your honor as a Tactical Gamer.

Tactics at TG come from trust and friendship, not meticulous detail and rigid discipline.

Everyone should be assumed mature until proven otherwise.

We are no clan.
We are not a single game.
We are mature, intelligent, and cooperative individuals.
We are TacticalGamer, a community above and beyond its name.

sc1ence

This pretty much sums it up. If this was april first I would be laughing my self to tears. From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense. Its like peggle meets battlefield. at least TF2 has depth. This may be the worst video game ever released. I know several people that bought expansion packs simply for unlocks. Buying the unlocks makes perfect business sense.

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LordMeatwad

my gaming god, i didn't think it could get worse. Any game where you pay to be better I thought EAs neglect to correctly debug games was bad enough. But now.

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Steel_Penguin

So let me get this straight. EA is going to completely rip off the cartoony style of TF2, ruin it in typical EA fashion, make it so you start up a free version with a pistol, 3 health, and no armor, make you buy new guns, assault you with adds for coke zero all the while, and then slap the Battlefield name on it.

Gee thanks EA.

Edit: if this isn't the most obvious "we have no ideas for a sequel whatsoever but i need a new 72 inch TV" thing ever i don't know what is.

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FBmantis

I'm sure BF3 is still coming. This game will appeal to a different usergroup and with 2142 and bf2 starting to show its age they will need to refresh the hardcore segment of the market as well soon.

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Doktor Goku

It's been said already a few times in this thread, but wow- excellent TF2 ripoff work there, EA.

Geez, that art style looks so familiar!

I guess you aren't learning from being knocked down to second place.

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Doc-in-training

birdie_in_Texas

omfg..what a freakin' shame...they are generating more than $1M/month of of FIFA and now they wanna ruin what is quite possibly the best game franchise in existence by doing this? wow...someone please just go ahead and hit the red button..it might as well be all over..

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