All Future Battlefield 4 DLC Will be Free

[Steven Bogos]

All Future Battlefield 4 DLC Will be Free

All future BF4 content, including the upcoming Gunmaster game mode and night maps, will be free for both premium and non-premium players.

Some good news for fans who are still enjoying DICE's modern military shooter, "Night Maps" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/battlefield+4] won't have any cost attached to it.

In addition to these major updates, upcoming content for Battlefield 4 includes several new weapons, a "community map," and another "classic" Battlefield map remake. There's no additional content planned beyond that but it should ensure a steady stream of free updates for Battlefield 4 players.

This can only really be lauded as a good move for EA. With Battlefront [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/battlefield+hardline] in the works for release later this year, many assumed that Battlefield 4 would simply go the way of every Battlefield title before it, and fall to the wayside.

The promise of additional new content - completely free to boot - shows that DICE is dedicated to supporting it's "older" titles (Battlefield 4 was only release 2 years ago, in October, 2013).

Source: BF4 Central [http://bf4central.com/2015/05/free-battlefield-4-content/]

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[Metalrocks]

this, sounds actually very nice. havent played it much since i hardly find any servers anymore. even hardline is for some reason very dead. but i guess this offer will bring BF4 back to live. maybe give the new weapons a try. only i have the feeling that for me i still need over half a mag for one guy since everyone seems to have 200% health wile i have 10%.

 

[MiskWisk]

The optimist in me rejoices as he hopes for this to catch on to make a new, positive trend.

The cynic in me however has picked up a baseball bat and has brained the optimist and is suggesting this is them only getting desperate.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The fact of the matter is, hardly anyone bought Hardline, hardly anyone is playing Hardline and the very few that are get fewer every day.

The failure of that (and Titanfall as well) hasn't left EA much choice but to keep supporting BF4, for all it's many, many faults (like the entire counter knife system) it's what people are still buying and playing. Many moons ago now EA/DICE did exactly the same thing with Battlefield 2 when 2142 and Bad Company didn't sell as well as hoped, BF2 got it's last major content update in 2009.

Good news for BF4 players though, now gimme my AN94!

 

[Vigormortis]

So a dev providing post-launch support of their games for free (well, mostly free) is now praise-worthy news? Really?

Good lord, even in the realm of triple-A development this sort of thing isn't unheard of. I get that this is EA we're talking about, but come on.

Still, good for the BF4 players, I 'spose. A penny saved, and all that. Now, if only DICE can get around to releasing a non-bugged-out, mostly functional title for a change...

<.<

 

[Vivi22]

So a dev providing post-launch support of their games for free (well, mostly free) is now praise-worthy news? Really?

Not sure this is so much praise worthy as it is, "huh? EA doing something right for a change? Where are the horsemen and the fire raining from the sky?"

Though considering how they completely fucked BF4's launch and sold people a completely broken game, they should have been giving away free DLC a long time ago.

 

[Dying_Jester]

Now, if only DICE can get around to releasing a non-bugged-out, mostly functional title for a change...

<.<

Yeah, it's easy to forget that Mirror's Edge was developed by DICE
Although, I still think that it was just some mysterious group that suddenly appeared at DICE that knew how to get rid of bugs that developed it, after which they disappeared back into the night.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The fact of the matter is, hardly anyone bought Hardline, hardly anyone is playing Hardline and the very few that are get fewer every day.

I was gonna say this too. Part of me wanted to get BFH, but I held off, and I think I made the right choice- they're only now getting around to rebalancing some of the more ridiculous weapons, and most of the game modes are barely being played, from what I've seen.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Who can complain about this?

I havent played BF4 in several weeks, so yay for new content.

 

[Seracen]

On one hand...good on them!

On the other: this is basically payment for the broken release, and trying to encourage good will for the new release. Moreover, they make their money on microtransactions anyway.

So...mixed bag. Were I a BF fan, I might bite. As it stands...EA is still relegated to the used/sale bin for me (with precious few exceptions)

 

[Vigormortis]

Not sure this is so much praise worthy as it is, "huh? EA doing something right for a change? Where are the horsemen and the fire raining from the sky?"

Though considering how they completely fucked BF4's launch and sold people a completely broken game, they should have been giving away free DLC a long time ago.

With how badly it all went down, I feel as though, if they wanted to repair their abysmal reputation, they should have considered giving the entire game away for free to anyone interested. Then they could have recouped some of their hosting costs through the DLC.

Yeah, it's easy to forget that Mirror's Edge was developed by DICE
Although, I still think that it was just some mysterious group that suddenly appeared at DICE that knew how to get rid of bugs that developed it, after which they disappeared back into the night.

Oh, I know that DICE made Mirror's Edge. But that's part of my point. Besides that, the vast majority of their more recent releases have been...kind of messy.

Granted, barring BF4, they managed to fix most in a reasonably quick interval of time, but still...

 

[TristanBelmont]

Wow, so now all the "future DLC" for a year old game with an extremely lessened online community will be free? Yayyyyyyy

I really think that they should just make ALL the DLC free for this game.

 

[dangoball]

Yay for EA making the news by doing something NOT colossally stupid!

Other than that, meh, not a BF fan so I don't really care.

 

[Metalrocks]

The fact of the matter is, hardly anyone bought Hardline, hardly anyone is playing Hardline and the very few that are get fewer every day.

I was gonna say this too. Part of me wanted to get BFH, but I held off, and I think I made the right choice- they're only now getting around to rebalancing some of the more ridiculous weapons, and most of the game modes are barely being played, from what I've seen.

the game it self is actually fun. i enjoyed the beta so of course i got my self the game. the campaign was actually ok. you could be stealthy most of the time, even when it was a bit hilarious how you can arrest people with your magic badge when they even point the weapon at you but well, the story at least was far more memorable than that of BF3 and 4.
but now he mp is really dieing out. at least on asian servers (since i live in hong kong) for some reason they are pretty much dead. so part of me wishes i woulndt have touched the game.
even BF4 is not that occupied anymore. yesterday i found one server to play on.
but again, for some reason everyone can kill me with 2-3 shots wile i need half a mag for one guy.

 

[fix-the-spade]

but now he mp is really dieing out. at least on asian servers (since i live in hong kong) for some reason they are pretty much dead. so part of me wishes i woulndt have touched the game.

It's pretty much global for Hardline.

Right now there are (on PC):
11'500 people playing BF3
25'000 people playing BF4
5'000 people playing Hardline

The numbers on Xbone and PS4 are a bit better, but still very poor when you consider than 500'000 people are playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive right now.

Hardline's problems boil down to two things. EA are obsessed with monetising everything and splitting up the player groups as much as possible, which has hit Hardline particularly hard. It was also a game that nobody wanted, I cannot remember ever having discussed or heard discussed the idea of a Police themed Battlefield game before Hardline dropped from nowhere. That was going to be an uphill struggle from day one.

 

[the doom cannon]

That's nice. Too bad it's still a broken piece of crap.

 

[Metalrocks]

but now he mp is really dieing out. at least on asian servers (since i live in hong kong) for some reason they are pretty much dead. so part of me wishes i woulndt have touched the game.

It's pretty much global for Hardline.

Right now there are (on PC):
11'500 people playing BF3
25'000 people playing BF4
5'000 people playing Hardline

The numbers on Xbone and PS4 are a bit better, but still very poor when you consider than 500'000 people are playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive right now.

Hardline's problems boil down to two things. EA are obsessed with monetising everything and splitting up the player groups as much as possible, which has hit Hardline particularly hard. It was also a game that nobody wanted, I cannot remember ever having discussed or heard discussed the idea of a Police themed Battlefield game before Hardline dropped from nowhere. That was going to be an uphill struggle from day one.

never really bother looking up the statistics but thanks anyway. i play on pc, and when i got it, it was very active in the asian region. the japanese servers are so far the busiest ones. even for BF3 and 4. but as i have mentioned before, even now their servers are all 0. with maybe 1 or 2 being played, but then a mode im not really keen on playing.
slowly feeling like stopping MP all together and just focus on SP games only. if it werent for the beta version of hardline and even enjoyed it, i woulndt have really bothered getting the game either.

 

[Callate]

I'm beginning to think I should keep a clip of Pat Benetar's "Little Too Late" tied to a macro.

I mean, sure. It's a nice gesture. It's better than announcing that they're shutting down the servers. But given how many problems loyalists had to deal with to get this far, and how much EA mined the game with in-app purchases and even in-game advertisements, a little bit of free DLC doesn't exactly change everything to sunshine and rainbows in one fell swoop.

Frankly, it seems more like the kind of additions that one would see in droves from modders... in games that permitted mods.

 

[Svarr]

Inb4 no more BF4 DLC, lol.