News DICE: We don't want to charge for BC2 maps

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/04/01/dice-we-don-t-want-to-charge-for-bc2-maps/1

 

This will no doubt come as no surprise to most, but it does seem to confirm that DICE had to argue with EA, and that EA wanted to charge for pretty much everything.

 

EA wants to charge? For stuff that should be free? No way!!! ^^

 

I wish the maps for MW2 were free!

 

at least during the argument with EA, DICE's executives didn't get escorted off the premises.

 

At least DICE are being community friendly in that respect.

More importantly, it shows that EA is willing to listen to his dev houses - Something that ought to bode well for their other dev houses that want to avoid the "charge for everything" syndrome.

 

I hope Valve will never get into a similar position with EA as DICE.

 

They won't. Valve for the most part publishes their own games through Steam and they could drop EA for another publisher if they wanted.

 

He may not want it, that doesn't mean they never will
Walked into the industry as a newborn yesterday, right?

 

Great game (far better than MW) and the support they are giving to the community gets PC gaming back on track - at long last. Thankyou DICE for a great game and just as important, not following the MW disaster and sticking to the PC gamers expectations for gaming ~ it will help keep the game running for many more years to come.

 

Hugs Battlefield Bad Company 2..... now please please please get the Friends list working and I'll be as happy as a pig in sh*t

 

Still not fixed to the point where I consider it out of beta.

 

I miss the UT days when you could play for hours without ever playing the same map... I still have over 400 maps in my ut99 folder and about 150 in my ut2k4 folder

Those were the real days of online gaming

 

Plus all updates they do they publish themselves via steam. So EA only do the printed disks and that's it, all the cost for DLC for valves games are on their own heads so any publishers don't get a say.

Although L4D2....>.>

 

IMHO its important to keep the maps free, otherwise you divide the community. The new maps would have lower populations and wouldn't be as fun.

 

I don't even want to think about my CS:S map folder... surf maps alone must be pushing 150.

But it's refreshing to hear that new maps will be free, and premium content isn't exactly surprising. Just so long as they release decent maps, most of the release ones are awesome but some have a few problems that come to mind. Small oversights that I would prefer to not see in a professionally developed map.

 

As long as maps are free, I'm happy

 

I am shocked to see how many ppl are complaining about having to pay for new maps. Why do you think it should be free? Ppl develop these maps and companies have to pay those ppl. Just because you bought the game doesn't make you entitled to new maps. Go earn a few bucks for the new maps... geez.

EA and Dice.... Ask for a fair price. Don't give it away free or you will just make crappy maps. These kids should be mowing more lawns to make the $10 - $15 for the map expansion anyway.

 

Hooray someone is at bat for their fans.

 

I'm pretty shocked to see someone complain about getting free maps lol.

They gave their reason for it, it keeps the community happy and together. They know that word of mouth gets around, keeping the games community strong will sell more games in the long run. Not only that but you have to take into account that paying for map packs is still a pretty new concept, people have memories and remember that devs used to release stuff like this for free. Simply charging more money for everything you do doesn't always net you a higher profit, pleasing your customers is really important though.

In the end though it comes down to one thing, it's DICE's game, if they want to make maps for it for free then it's their choice. They will not be "crappy maps" just because they are free, I'm not sure why you think that, there are tons of examples of great free maps out there for many different games. Throwing money at something does not always give you a great product, money does not necessarily make people work harder, or more importantly in this case work more creatively.