Uh-oh: DICE just announced that the second Battlefield: Bad Company 2 map pack is due March 30th – the same day as the Modern Warfare 2 “mapathy” pack will go up for sale.
Yesterday, a teaser site proclaimed that Infinity Ward’s cure for Modern Warfare 2 “mapathy” was on the way, scheduled to go live on March 30th. This, of course, was the long-awaited MewTwo map pack that we knew was in the works, despite the recent shenanigans at the Call of Duty developer.
But EA and DICE aren’t planning on letting Infinity Ward take the wind out of their rather full sails just yet. In a post on the Battlefield blog titled, “How to avoid “mapathy” without paying,” series Executive Producer KM Troedsson said that the new BBC2 map pack would also be hitting on March 30th, only it would be free for VIP members (aka, people who bought the game new, in accordance with EA’s new “Project Ten Dollar” policy).
“This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing. Of course, it also helps avoid segmenting the community, making sure everyone can play together having the same maps available,” said Troedsson, though he also admitted that the game would have paid DLC available at some point in the future – but these map packs wouldn’t be it.
From what I can understand, however, these aren’t new maps per se – just new gametypes unlocked on ones that already exist. The Conquest mode will be added to Arica Harbor, where collateral damage “is of no consequence,” and Laguna Presa will be getting the Rush gametype.
This isn’t the first time that DICE has taken potshots at its main competitor in Infinity Ward and Call of Duty (see also: fiasco, dedicated servers), but it’s interesting to see that the studio isn’t letting up.
MewTwo versus the Beeb. Who will win?
(Via VG247)
