Battlefield 3: Aftershock Isn't Coming Back

[The Wooster]

Battlefield 3: Aftershock Isn't Coming Back

EA's recently pulled Battlefield 3 app won't be returning due to an incurable case of crappiness.

You may recall that last month EA removed its free Battlefield 3 spinoff from the App store in order to "re-evaluate" the game in response to overwhelmingly negative customer feedback. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115968-EA-Pulls-Battlefield-3-Aftershock-From-App-Store] EA promised a "more comprehensive," (I.E: working) version of the game would return to the App store later this year. That plan seems to have been re-evaluated as well, according to a new announcement from EA:

"In the interest of bringing consumers only the highest level of quality mobile entertainment EA Mobile has decided to suspend development and support of Battlefield 3: Aftershock and refocus its resources on other titles."

The game's servers will remain active until March 31st, for those of you with an inhuman degree of tolerance for fundamentally broken gaming experiences. We didn't review the game here at The Escapist, but former news room contributor, Mike Thompson, did pen a review of the game for Gamezebo [http://www.gamezebo.com/games/battlefield-3-aftershock/review], in which he called it an "insult," "beyond awful" and a "colossal middle finger from Electronic Arts to mobile players."

Source: Vox Games [http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/1/2836409/battlefield-3-aftershock]


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[Frizzle]

crappy FPS on a mobile phone app? This is my surprise face....
Brought to you by EA? haha I have no face for that.

 

[Doneeee]

Online till the 31st you say? I guess that'll be enough time for the 2 remaining people playing this too mourn and move on.

 

[Therumancer]

crappy FPS on a mobile phone app? This is my surprise face....
Brought to you by EA? haha I have no face for that.

Well to be fair, there does appear to be some half way decent shooter type games created as apps. I haven't done it yet, but I've heard the mobile version of "Dead Space" is actually pretty good, albiet it's one of the more expensive apps out there as a result.

I think the issue here is that this was a FREE App, probably crapped out to get attention for Battlefield, and they produced something that wasn't even worth playing for free as a result of just totally dialing it in.

Developing a game like this for a mobile system can be done, but probably takes actual work, and man hours to do well. The kind of effort EA doesn't want to put out there for a free promotional gimmick. I'd imagine the issue isn't that they could do this well, but that they couldn't do it for free.

I'd imagine that in a year or so we'll probably see a Battlefield App similar to what this was supposed to be in the minds of the fans, but they will probably want like $10 for it at least.

That said I'm still waiting to see if that Traveller game I saw mentioned on The Escapist (a trading/space sim App based on the old PnP RPG property) ever gets finished, and if it appears in a format that's playable on my Kindle Fire. Haven't seen it in the app store and nothing else mentioned about it in the geek media.

 

[Frizzle]

crappy FPS on a mobile phone app? This is my surprise face....
Brought to you by EA? haha I have no face for that.

Well to be fair, there does appear to be some half way decent shooter type games created as apps. I haven't done it yet, but I've heard the mobile version of "Dead Space" is actually pretty good, albiet it's one of the more expensive apps out there as a result.

I think the issue here is that this was a FREE App, probably crapped out to get attention for Battlefield, and they produced something that wasn't even worth playing for free as a result of just totally dialing it in.

Developing a game like this for a mobile system can be done, but probably takes actual work, and man hours to do well. The kind of effort EA doesn't want to put out there for a free promotional gimmick. I'd imagine the issue isn't that they could do this well, but that they couldn't do it for free.

I'd imagine that in a year or so we'll probably see a Battlefield App similar to what this was supposed to be in the minds of the fans, but they will probably want like $10 for it at least.

That said I'm still waiting to see if that Traveller game I saw mentioned on The Escapist (a trading/space sim App based on the old PnP RPG property) ever gets finished, and if it appears in a format that's playable on my Kindle Fire. Haven't seen it in the app store and nothing else mentioned about it in the geek media.

In fairness, I use a WP7 smartphone, so I haven't played the game. That said, it seems somewhat logical to me that with the limited buttons and controls on a touchscreen phone, any FPS would not really be that great. There are some great games that can be played on these phones (my favorite being a turn-based strategy) but anything that requires twitch reactions can't be one of them with so few controls.

I think that putting out a F2P game that's an FPS makes you kinda wonder why. I feel like either EA was using their interns to make it, or.... yeah I dunno. It's almost like they put it up there on accident without testing it.

But seriously FPS' need tactile controls with the technical limitations phones have right now. I guess that's what I'm getting at. This was not a smart move on their part.

 

[flames09]

EA has been forcing Dice and it's co-developers for BF downhill for a long time yet, I have lost hope for the BF franchise and am just waiting for a competitor to pop up.

Funnily enough it has only been shit since it was ported to consoles.. coincidence? I THINK NOT D:

 

[ElPatron]

EA has been forcing Dice and it's co-developers for BF downhill for a long time yet, I have lost hope for the BF franchise and am just waiting for a competitor to pop up.

Funnily enough it has only been shit since it was ported to consoles.. coincidence? I THINK NOT D:

At least I am not the only one.

Battlefield on mobile phones? It's like taking all the 1942, Vietnam, BF2 and BF2142 and taking a huge dump on it.

I can't believe how we got a spin off of Battlefield for consoles while DICE promised a BF2 successor. Lies, BF3 has more in common with the Bad Company spin off!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

This is why I don't game on my phone. Well, one of the reasons with the other being my phone cannot support games.

EA would have suffered more for having left it up so it makes sense they're ripping it down. Did they refund the buyers?