14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the first person shooter DICE put together and Electronic Arts published, is arguably better than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from Infinity Ward and Activision despite lower sales. And it seems that the culture behind the two titles is also very different, one of the developers saying that Bad Company 2 will not aim to extract more money from its player base by putting out map packs for their product.
Patrick Bach, who is a senior producer working on Battlefield: Bad Company 2, told Xbox World 360 magazine that “We don't ever want to charge for our maps and insisted to EA that this attitude was crucial when it came to keeping our community happy and playing together,” adding that “We're owned by EA but we're still very much DICE.”
On March 30, DICE launched two new maps for those who bought the title new and registered with the code offered in the game box.
On the same day, Activision put out the Stimulus Package consisting of three whole new maps and two taken from the first Modern Warfare, charging players 1,200 Microsoft Points for it, more than the market initially expected. The launch of the DLC, which will make it to the PC and the PlayStation 3 after one month of Xbox 360 exclusivity, was plagued by some problems.
Electronic Arts has included Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in its 10 Dollar Project initiative. The publisher aims to dissuade players from buying its titles used by offering a host of important content for those who get the game new and register with EA. We already know that Infinity Ward should contractually create a second DLC pack for Modern Warfare 2 and it will be interesting to see whether DICE is also ready to deliver a new map pack in response.