14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts, the publisher of the upcoming Battlefield 3 first person shooter, confirmed that it has no plans to charge players extra for using the Battlelog social service, which will be offer a variety of services for them, in the same way Activision is doing with Call of Duty Elite, which has now been revealed to cost $49.99 a year for a premium membership.
The end of October and beginning of November sees the first person shooter genre's biggest rivals, the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises, fight it out with brand new installments, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, as well as with similar features, like Battlelog and Call of Duty Elite.
Now, after Activision revealed that its Call of Duty Elite service can be accessed for free or by paying $49.99 in exchange for a premium membership, Electronic Arts has once again emphasized that its Battlelog service is completely free.
"We are providing Battlelog to Battlefield 3 players to deliver the best social, multiplayer FPS experience in the market," an EA representative told Industry Gamers. "We have no plans to charge for this service with Battlefield 3. The Battlefield series has always been about playing with friends, and Battlelog takes that experience to the next level by serving as a unique social network."
We already saw Battlelog showcased in the last couple of months and, so far, looks very similar to existing social networks like Facebook, but catered to Battlefield 3 players, showcasing the achievements and actions of their friends in-game, tracking their progress through the single, cooperative or multiplayer campaigns, and offering a variety of extra information.
Call of Duty Elite does largely the same thing, but for the $49.99 charge, premium members get extra features as well as free access to all the multiplayer downloadable content that will be released in the next year for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.