Tuesday, September 20, 2011

EA is PUNISHING early Battlefield 3 pre-orders on Origin?!

I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 on Origin in mid-August. Later I heard that as a Battlefield 3 Pre-Order incentive, they were giving away a copy of Dead Space 2. I thought that was pretty cool as I hadn't played Dead Space 2. I've been busy, but tonight I planned on downloading from Origin and giving it a whirl.

Turns out, it that deal only applied to NEW pre-orders! SERIOUSLY?! Are you kidding me? Is Electronic Arts really that stupid?!

First, it is a digital copy, which is almost no cost to them. It isn't like they are still worried about selling physical copies on the shelf of this game anymore. It's a year old, which is FOREVER in game years. Not to be confused with MMO years, which have a mid-life crisis and go free-to-play. Besides, getting people to play Dead Space 2 while waiting to player Battlefield 3 is a great way to bait them into buying Dead Space 3 which should be coming along pretty soon.

Second, by setting this precedent you can be sure I will not be pre-ordering anything again, at least not until the absolute very last minute. Why should customers give them early pre-order numbers if it means we will be screwed out of some incentive later on for the people who were waffling and weren't supporting the game with their pre-order dollars?

Third, they are trying to pump up Origin, their new digital store. Everybody already says it isn't good as Steam and that Valve is good and EA is bad. You buy some indie bundle on Steam and they later add a game to it, it gets added to your library automatically. This just proves that EA doesn't know what they are doing and are screwing up Origin just like they screwed up every other attempt they've made at a online digital store in the past. What is this their 3rd or 4th attempt at a digital store? Anybody else think they only named it Origin to thumb their nose at Lord British?

There are people on EA's forum have said when they contacted customer support, they were told the only way to get Dead Space 2 was to cancel their pre-order and then re-pre-order it. The sound you aren't hearing is my head banging on the table.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

u mad bro?

Anonymous said...

"First, it is a digital copy, which is almost no cost to them."

What the fucking fuck?

"I thought that was pretty cool as I hadn't played Dead Space 2"

"It isn't like they are still worried about selling physical copies on the shelf of this game anymore."

This is exactly why they do and continue to sell the product in the first place. To people like you who have not experienced the game yet.

"It's a year old, which is FOREVER in game years."

Clearly you have had better things to do for the past year, like write a blog.

"Besides, getting people to play Dead Space 2 while waiting to player Battlefield 3 is a great way to bait them into buying Dead Space 3 which should be coming along pretty soon."

I can count the number of BF3 players who give a fuck about Dead Space 2, it's the same people who purchased it in the first place. Fucking Zero.

If you actually showed Visceral some support a year ago, maybe they wouldn't have closed down? Thanks a lot asshole.

"you can be sure I will not be pre-ordering anything again"

That would work.

"You buy some indie bundle on Steam and they later add a game to it, it gets added to your library automatically."

You pre-ordered one fucking game, how many? Yes. That's right, one.

"What is this their 3rd or 4th attempt at a digital store? Anybody else think they only named it Origin to thumb their nose at Lord British?"

Thankfully, I get jokes. This wasn't a good one.

"There are people on EA's forum have said when they contacted customer support, they were told the only way to get Dead Space 2 was to cancel their pre-order and then re-pre-order it. The sound you aren't hearing is my head banging on the table. "

Makes sense to me, after all their pre-order was unchanged as requested by the customer when they placed the order in it's original state.


It's a fucking pre order bundle special that they are offering new customers. It's an enticing deal before launch and they should be able to do what the fuck they want.

If you actually gave a shit about steam, dead space 2 or any such offers you would have already purchased it in a sale previously.

Anonymous said...

u even madder anonybro?

fwiw terrible marketing + terrible store + raging at legit criticism in comments = you really sold us!

Anonymous said...

am i the only one expecting there to be like major problems with Origin in the first few months of BF3? im gonna be totally pissed when it goes down and i cant play.

Anonymous said...

It looks like the clever genius in marketing who came up with this bundle has found your blog Joeseph.

-BugHunter

ps. I'm posting as "Anonymous" to be part of the crowd.