Battlefield: Bad Company beta to start next week

by Justin McElroy on Mar 20th 2008 12:15PM

We (much like yourself, we'd imagine) heard word of a Battlefield: Bad Company beta in the works. But we held off on passing it along until some of the details could be hammered out. Basically, you're either going to need to be a member of IGN's Founders Club or Insider service or pre-order the game at your local Gamestop. Oh, and you're going to need to be playing on the 360, as the offer isn't extended to PS3 players.

If you're in the first group, your life is pretty easy. Just hit up this link and you're in, provided you meet the requirements. If you're going through Gamestop, you'll want to act fast: Only the first 5,000 to preorder are going to be in on the month of action, which will include one mode ("Gold Rush") and two maps. There's more info about the Gamestop keys here. No matter which way you get in, the beta starts March 25 and continues until April 25. So what's the word? Will you be taking advantage of the beta?

Source

Tags: bad-company, battlefield-bad-comp..., beta, dice, ea, Electronic-Arts, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (57)

Hell yes.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a technically and game play wise, much much more superior game... I'll wait for that 360 Beta to go public... ty.

Got my Beta key this morning!! It was on IGN. Free MP Beta, w00t!! The trailer for it looks cool too.

:(

This is one of the few times I wish I owned a 360. Want to trade for my PS3 for one month? I'll even throw in some pocket lint for free!

/jealous sigh

Aww, there there. Buck up son, buck up!

Ask someone else I already have a PS3

=P

Well then, looks like i'll be taking my pocket lint elsewhere. :(

done and done.

BF2 fanboy is happy. Can't wait. 5 more days.

YES I'm in the beta!! I didn't expect to be, because I'm on IGN insider, but I thought I stopped paying for it last year... Maybe I'm getting a bill, but at least I'm in the beta now!

You don't have to be a paid member to get in the beta.

Now I wonder when Battlefield: Heroes is going to be released...

after BF:3000

Sam - Same thing here... I was an Insider until about 6 months ago...but I was still able to join...and I've already downloaded the beta, so it's all good :)

YEeaYyy got in ^^

First PS3 users losing on the
Super Street Fighter 2 HD Beta from Capcom...now Battlefield: Bad Company

To busy with The Show and Hot Shots golf to care...

How much entertainment can you get out of basically an unfinished online demo?

You're basically testing the game for the developers free of charge.
While PS3 owners are playing full games, waiting for the final release of said 'beta' games.

In b4 all the PS3 non-beta havin fanbo...oh wait. Sorry Rage, didnt see ya there.

I knew my overpriced IGN membership would be good for something. Thanks for the heads-up Joystiq, because IGN themselves didn't tell me squat!

really? i got an email for it, check your spam box!

I just signed up for the free ign shit and got the beta key just finished downloading...

Reporting for duty! As a side note, my fileplanet/IGN paid account ran out months ago

I'm getting rather tired of the betas appearing on the xbox first. I believe it's been said several times that programming goes easier if they build on the PS3 first, then scale back for the xbox. Sure, I may be biased by not owning a xbox, but it just seems better for everybody if they would start the other way around.

Boo *sniffle* Hoo

I think betas are just easier to do on XBL for all the reporting back it already has consoles doing.

Error reports probably go back automatically for crashes and the like. Its clear MS has an infrastructure thats independent of games (insert P2P network jab here) to have their cross-game stuff run on, so if there's an event log to be sent back, it would go over that.

Sony doesn't have that sort of thing (yet), so it would probably be that much more difficult to get technical feedback.

It's not "boo hoo" it's a poor business model. Shimano doesn't send inferior gears at a latter date to Trek simply because they don't sell as many bikes as Huffy. No, they produce the best parts available for the Treks then scale them back for the Huffy line. It make sense, even if that isn't the best analogy.

Its a business thing, more people online with 360. Not that hard to understand, and yes it did come off as a Boo Hoo thing. Just buy all the consoles and stop bitching because your first choice didn't get something.

@Deaftly
With only 5000 people in the beta the total number of users becomes kind of irrelevant; there has to be another reason for doing it on 360. I don't think they'd have trouble finding that many participants in either console's online user-base.

Maybe its not reporting features, but the fact that they can bang out a 360 build more easily due to its PC similarities. I'm actually pretty curious about the reasons.

The reason more than likely has to do with the Beta existing on the system generates hype for the game. 360 has built a community where people pay attention to what others are playing (read: Pimps At Sea news). Whereas, personally, on PS3, I log in, see what others are playing and see if I'm interested in joining their games or not. So the PS3 has less of the "what is everyone doing" mentality about it's userbase.

Also, I do believe every game which had a beta on 360 has had a million sales. Would be nice if they could test that performance on PS3 but the only one which had the beta was Warhawk and I believe they said recently they were at 500,000. More developers need to start putting faith in PS3's userbase, but they shouldn't be crucified when they don't.

Also, since Live has a much more strict policy on the communications (read: complex and a major reason for lag in many games), you'd think the toughest nut to crack would be the one they test on. Just a theory though.

I'd be jealous, if it were a single player beta and I wasn't getting so damn sick of FPS games. I'm really more interested in the campaign for this one because it looks like they're making the characters interesting (or at least amusing) and I'd like to see how the story goes.

It was really awesome watching someone blast straight through a house with a grenade launcher in that early-build trailer. Hopefully that kind of thing sticks around for multi player.

It's ok Trev I'll be testing this Beta for you also. The game eventually comes out on PS3 as well. So our careful testing will be benefiting you as well. Unless your still sick of FPS by then =P

Hey, I'd test it too if I didn't have to pre-order a game for a console I don't own. Free is free, good or bad, it won't have provided some corporate entity with sixty of my dollars -- I could always cancel the pre-order if I didn't like it -- for the crushing disappointment that is Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The mechanics did not age as well as I hoped. Loved the first one, but really should have rented it.

I think my pair of Tricky Dick Fun-Bills (the worst tax plan ever rebate check, which is coincidentally the same amount as the Futurama joke) is going to get here too late to get in to the beta, but I think it will still be covering the cost of an 360 elite for me.

Trev getting a 360? I'll need the Gamertag to beleive it! =P Cool man, maybe you can see first hand why alot of people prefer 360 over PS3.

I already know why. Hell, EVERYONE must know why by now; people never shut up about achievements or cross-game voice chat. Unfortunately neither of those things really matter to me, so the elite going to pull equal at best.

Anything besides Halo let you play online for free? I'll jump into 360 exclusive games, but I'd rather not jump into subscription fees.

Well, take that free month they give you and check it out. Then decide if $4.17 a month is too much to play on a quality online service. IMO it definatly is.

I think you meant 'defintely is *not*' [too much]

*isn't

lulz

got in

didnt have to have a membership or anything

That was damn easy. I was scared I would fail screening, but for those that don't know, the answers are:

1)Yes
2)True
3)Harry Truman
4)3.8
5)Apple Juice
6)St Thomas

You don't need to be a member of any premium service. My GameSpy ID got me in.

Same.

Got a beta key...but I lied about having Xbox Live Gold. :O

Looks like I'll have to use that free month I got when my 360 red-ringed. And I was gonna save that for GTA4...

Yep, there was some public keys where you could just register for free ign or gamespy. I must have got one of the last ones though cause it says that there is no public keys left.

you get a special sniper rifle code from gamestop preorder and free overnight

I take it europe and the UK won't be seeing any BETA action?

That's a damned shame. Its not like giving us the COD4 beta BOOSTED SALES IMMENSELY in the region now is it.

:S

Did you even bother trying to sign-up, im from the UK and i got the beta key and redeemed it on my PAL Elite.

Crosseyed third soldier is crosseyed.

If anyone has any spare keys please send them to Skevenbot@gmail.com

Thats BS. Again no PS3 Beta

YeeeAHHHHHH!! Finally, the IGN account is worth while after 3 years of paying for it???? I've been reading Joystiq everyday for about 8 months now and LOVE IT!!! ......and it's FREE!!!
Got my beta key and have my birthday off from work on Wed 3/26 ...... see you all there!!!

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Battlefield: Bad Company beta to start next week

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