Battlefield Heroes launching with two maps

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 2nd 2008 at 4:00PM }

Buried somewhere in Gamasutra's interview with EA DICE producer Ben Cousins is the acknowledgment that Battlefield Heroes will only have two maps when the free MMO shooter launches. Cousins states that the studio is used to making 50 maps for other Battlefield games and finding out months later that people are only playing on two of them -- so, they just cut to the chase for this free game.

Considering this is an EA product, the automatic impulse is to call microtransaction shenanigans. The only problem is that Battlefield Heroes is designed to have a business model like an Asian MMO where players join free and pay for content later. Cousins previously stated that players will only be charged for accessorizing their avatar and not for weapons, which could break balance in the game (a concept not shared by other Battlefield titles). ~~At this point, we don't even know if players will be charged for new Battlefield Heroes maps when they become available.~~

Update: Cousins left a little note in our comments saying, "We have no plans to charge for maps."

[Via EvilAvatar]

Gallery: Battlefield Heroes

Tags: battlefield-heroes, dice, ea

Related From Joystiq

Hands-on: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 squad deathmatch
10 days ago
MMO Roundup: Massively's week in review
11 days ago
3 million Battlefield Heroes have been registered, new 'Sunset Showdown' map to celebrate
12 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

colin @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:06PM

i'm not sure about the art style ...

LaughingTarget @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:12PM

Who cares about art style? You can sit on a farking WING of a plane and shoot at guys from the air.

Yuccadude @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:13PM

Until your teammate does a kamikaze mission and crashes his plane into a tank.

Mr.ESC @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:16PM

I'm doing that first day.

Well I like the art style.

mundox @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:19PM

Who cares about anything, it's FREE.

Van Faulk @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:26PM

Yeah! Quality be damned! Playability be damned!

As long as we don't have to pay.

Van Faulk @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:26PM

Yeah! Quality be damned! Playability be damned!

As long as we don't have to pay.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:02PM

I can't believe Van Faulk is actually complaining about free stuff.

All it'd cost is your time to try it out: if you don't like it, try something else. The investment risk for the consumer is infinitely smaller compared to buying a 50-60 dollar game you might not like, why?

BECAUSE BATTLEFIELD HEROES IS FREE.

If the microtransaction system is unfair, then it won't attract free players anymore. The point is, it's FREE and you're not losing anything to play it.

(PS: On the other hand, if there were ingame ads, I'd have something to bitch about)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:28PM

I don't even think I could bitch about in game ads...

It's free.... period. EA isn't a charity, they gotta make money off this somehow.

phoenix @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:32PM

Bananas

BA NA NA S!!!

sinergy @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:05PM

potatoes.

PO TA TOES! boil'em mash'em.... etc.

Sam Zebian @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:35PM

Oh come on EA, at least give us a decent amount of maps... Like 10... Feel free to include more if you'd like...

LaughingTarget @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:51PM

I wouldn't be surprised if we got a dozen fan maps in a week or two of launch.

Poisoned Al @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:31PM

People bitched about the number of maps in TF2 when it came out, yet same people just play Dustbowl anyway.

Matt @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:43PM

If both maps are good then 2 is plenty. I still haven't gotten sick of Dustbowl or 2Fort.

Marlos Hill @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:40PM

as long as theyre dope....

but if theyre not? there will be blood.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:04PM

A few buddies on MSN and I are planning to create a clan when this game comes out (even if the clan system were to be only part of the microtransaction scheme, we'd do it CounterStrike style with tags in the name).

Why the appeal? BECAUSE IT'S FREE.

Ben Cousins - DICE @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:11PM

Hi all - we have no plans to charge for maps.

New maps will be available for free post the initial launch of the service. We already have one in development, actually. As the game is free, rather than wait until we had built 16 maps, we decided to get the game out as soon as possible.

As I've stated multiple times, we are perfectly happy, if not delighted that 95% of the people playing this game never spend any money at all on items.

If anyone has any questions about this, feel free to contact me at ben.cousins@dice.se