Update: Electronic Arts has contacted us to let us know that the outfits will be free. Multiplayer has updated its own story, noting that the prices mentioned were seen on the Battlefield Heroes test servers. Upon release to the actual public, they will be offered at the consumer-friendly price of no dollars. Original post is below.

In a touching display of respect for the recently deceased King of Pop, Electronic Arts has uploaded a pair of the music legend's iconic outfits to Battlefield Heroes -- one for each of the game's two factions. Members of the Royal Army can now drape themselves in the white suit worn by Michael Jackson in the "Smooth Criminal" music video, while National Army recruits can don the black leather apparel featured in "Bad." This is a really neat way for EA to show -- wait a sec, you have to pay for them?

You're telling us that EA is charging 420 Battlefunds (about $3) for these outfits? Well, surely, they're donating the money to sick kids or something, right? No? They're just ... keeping it? That's sorta messed up, guys.

We're so excited that we can finally share our love of Battlefield Heroes with the whole world. The casual, free-to-play shooter has (finally) gone live, and you can start outfitting your soldier right now.

While the game itself is free, if you want to level up faster, get special emotes and exclusive weapons, you're going to need to shell out some cash. But there's no need to worry about that at the moment -- just go, start up an account and feel free to swap your usernames below.

[Via BD]

Though we're running this one under the "likely an error and probably not a hot scoop" category, a listing for Battlefield Heroes on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 has appeared on the EA press site. Pointed out by GOONLINE (their caps, not ours), the listing posits a June 2009 release date -- interesting considering the PC version of the game has been marred by delays. The site also pegs the PC version with a September release, a significantly more solid release date than EA has provided as of late.

At this point, however, we'd like to note that the game's developer, DICE, has stated before its lack of interest in console ports of the game, telling Videogamer.com a year ago, "We could port the engine and do it, I just don't know what we would gain from it. Everyone's who's [sic] got a 360 or PS3 also will have a PC that can run this game." We've reached out for comment from EA and will update you when we hear more.

Update: As expected, EA's Ben Cousins has shot the rumor down.

DICE recently opened up the Battlefield Heroes forums to suggestions for the title of the map you see above. The winner, Noobilator, ended up dubbing this particular area Coastal Clash, and it stuck. The map is still in the development process, and needs more play testing before being deployed into battle, but fans of Battlefield Heroes can look forward to destroying this peaceful little village sometime soon.

If you're trying to experience Battlefield Heroes for yourself, and don't have a beta invite, hit up the site. DICE is handing out codes to everyone.

[Via Big Download]

Although EA promised the world would be in the middle of a cartoon-shaded war by now, it looks like Battlefield Heroes isn't going to hit the planned Q1 '09 release. If you're one of the unfortunate many who haven't been invited into the party, EA has a quick game that may hold you over.

The official Battlefield Heroes website has released a Flash version of the game to help pass the time before the open beta begins. In the Battlefield Heroes Flash Game players have 60 seconds to shoot as many "Nationals" as they can, who each pop into frame Wack-A-Mole style and await a bullet sandwich. It isn't as sexy as playing the real game, but ... yeah, we got nothing.

[Via BigDownload]

Lars Gustavsson is no stranger to risk. After last year's first-person parkour-based action/platformer Mirror's Edge stumbled off shelves during the holiday season, you'd think DICE's creative director might be dissuaded from continuing to push the envelope. However, speaking at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertertain Summit (conveniently shortened to D.I.C.E.) last week, he told the crowd "the games industry has come to a crossroads."

According to him, the situation is multi-faceted -- the poor economy is forcing lower overhead costs on developers and people are less willing to spend their money while consumers are also less likely to invest in new intellectual properties (such as the aforementioned Mirror's Edge). Should developers play it safe with proven IPs or take risks in hopes of breaking in?

He pontificates that "more customization offerings, new business models, data-driven development and the active tuning of the games" will drive innovation and allay risk going forward. "It's totally different from anything we've done," Gustavsson noted when referencing upcoming online-only multiplayer shooter Battlefield 1943. And he seems to be putting the development costs where his mouth is, as Battlefield 1943 sticks to his plan (on paper at least) to a tee. It remains to be seen whether they'll work out. After all, we're still waiting on that other Battlefield game.

After announcing a delay last Summer (and missing the planned '08 release), then closing and subsequently re-opening the beta, EA has informed us that its ready to bring the online-exclusive Battlefield Heroes to the gaming masses ... relatively soon.

According to a supplement (PDF) included in EA's latest investor report, Battlefield Heroes should be released by quarter's end. That means if EA and DICE can keep development on track, we'll be blasting cartoonified soldiers in Heroes by March, at the latest.

Things have been quiet on Battlefield Heroes' front lines since Electronic Arts first called for a ceasefire last November, halting the game's release and sending scores of pastel-colored grunts back to their bunks. Now EA has reopened beta sign-ups, giving the boys in green another chance to enlist.

Still, it's unknown how many players will be admitted into the beta, and greenhorns eager to taste the free-to-play shooter's cartoon action could be left in their barracks. Seasoned vets, however, will get first dibs, and do not need to get back in line, as any players who were already in the beta or had previously signed up will automatically receive an invite to report for duty. As for when soldiers can expect the call to action, EA is saying only to watch for more announcements in the "coming weeks."

[Via Massively]

Get back behind the sandbags, soldier! No, not those, they're far too realistic. These, more cartoony bags are much better suited to protect your rounded corners and chiseled jaw while waiting for Electronic Arts to decide when Battlefield Heroes will roll onto the front lines. EA once more postponed the official release of its free-to-play shooter, while the closed beta will soon go dark until sometime next year.

James Salt, senior producer on Battlefield Heroes, broke the news on the game's website, writing that the beta will close down Friday night at 6pm CET so the team can focus on "polishing the backend." In the meantime, we expect many brokenhearted, animated grenadiers to keep polishing their oversized rifles until early 2009.

[Via Big Download]

What a week. We started with the long awaited BioWare Star Wars MMO announcement, then had the official word on E3 2009 getting big again and ended the week with friggin' NAZI ZOMBIES!. You can't get much better than that.

Exclusive features

• Previews: We got an invite to the big Star Wars: The Old Republic press event and have a full report on what may be the next big MMO game.
• Reviews: We have the final verdict on the PC version of Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway.
• Interviews: We have interviews with the dev teams behind Call of Duty: World at War, Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, Battlefield Heroes and Wanted: Weapons of Fate, plus a chat with MMO dev Turbine on their future expansion plans.
• E3 Booth Model Retrospective: We look back at over 10 years of E3 booth models in this gallery feature
• Celebs take over Red Alert 3: So what famous actors and MMA fighters are in the cut scenes in the upcoming RTS game? This gallery feature has the answer.
• Mac Monday: Our look at Mac games takes a look at the special edition of Hollow Ground.
• MODMonday: This week our mod column takes a look at the Doomsday Engine which puts some new features in old Doom engine games.
• Indie Showcase: Our indie games column this week takes a look at four game titles you may want to check out.
• Boot Disk: Our look at classic PC games is for a true classic title, Doom
• Big Ideas: Our weekly column about game industry themes looks at the coming of the mature gamer.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at free games is all about the online multiplayer shooter Continuum
• Virtual Bargain Bin: Want a cheap game to play? This week our column picks the action-RPG Sacred Gold.
• BigCast: It's our regular weekly podcast on all things PC gaming.
• Contests: You like free games? We have three copies of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 we are giving away to some lucky readers.

Games Convention generated a ton of new HD trailers for upcoming PC games and we have them ready to download, along with a ton of original content and news stories. Indeed, there were a lot of new PC games announcements this week (more than at E3). Take a look at all of them on our site:

Exclusive Features

• Reviews: Check out our reviews of the PC version of Bionic Commando Rearmed and the latest chapter of American McGee's Grimm.
• Hands-on previews: Check out our hands-on impressions of Aion, Battleforge and Battlefield Heroes
• BigVersus: Our latest game comparison column takes a look at the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Bionic Commando Rearmed.
• Big Iron: Our latest PC hardware column takes a look at power . . . power supplies for your rig that is.
• Big Ideas: Our latest column on themes in gaming takes a look at the so called "new games journalism."
• Alt-Tab: Our newest column takes a look at RTS gameplay conventions and how Relic could change them with Dawn of War II.
• Freeware Friday: Our latest look at free PC games is the classic Nethack.
• BigCast: It's our regular podcast with team members chatting about all things PC gaming.

Battlefield Heroes is a fairly unconventional game, especially when measured against other installments in the Battlefield franchise. It's an odd chimeric blend of some of our favorite shooters, with the cartoony style and sense of humor of Team Fortress 2, the character advancement of Call of Duty 4, and the free-ness of America's Army. As such, one couldn't expect the game to be released in a conventional fashion. Were the title gracing store shelves, we'd half expect the discs to come not inside a box, but rather, baked inside of a cake.

Unfortunately for pastry fans, the title will only be available via digital distribution upon its release -- though the term "release" seems to have come under scrutiny from Ben Cousins, executive producer for DICE, Battlefield Heroes' developer. According to him, the title, which is currently in closed beta, is already technically "released", and won't have the "big splash release" one expects from an Electronic Arts title.

Cousins explained that DICE simply plans to increase the size of the closed beta "to the point where every hardcore gamer in the world will probably be able to get a key if they want to," leading up to a time when the game will eventually "sneak out." We've never known a title to be well-served by a surreptitious launch, but we imagine the rules could be different when your game costs bupkis.

Visually appealing, free-to-play shooter news now, with EA's post-results conference call revealing a delay for Battlefield Heroes. EA CEO John Riccitiello announced that the game would now launch at the end of 2008, with the developers shifting focus to implementing better "social networking features." Since we won't have to pay for the game's maps, we'll probably be using said "social networking features" to figure out how to complain about something else -- possibly Burger King ads.

Though gravelly voiced soldiers are always keen to point out the many ways in which war has changed, it certainly hasn't ceased being profitable, least of all in the realm of video games. DICE, developer of EA's popular Battlefield franchise, has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that it currently has five related titles in development. Executive producer for DICE, Ben Cousins, was quite right when he said that's "more than you expect."

With Battlefield: Bad Company out this week and the free-to-play Battlefield: Heroes already impressing industry pundits, we're left speculating about three (maybe more?) additional titles. According to Cousin's comments made at GDC Paris, one will be a traditional game for consoles, while another will be a joint effort with Neowiz, aimed at Korea. As for the third title? We're predicting Battlefield: Field of Battle, a turn-based card game for the iPhone. What say you?

This is one of those rare posts that we, in the industry, like to call "easy." When we tell you that sign-ups for the Battlefield Heroes beta are now open, the odds are that you've already beat cheeks down to the "Read" link. And that's just fine with us, because it means we can relax our brain muscle, confident in the fact that only us and the spam spiders are reading the text.

It also means we can use the rest of this space to cop to something we otherwise wouldn't with millions of prying eyes around. ... We've completely turned the corner on Uwe Boll. He's out of his mind, he'll fight anyone and he's possibly the greatest self-promoter alive. We love him. And if you're a theater owner who won't show Postal, we think you're a jerk. There, we said it. ... OK, well, good luck with the beta thing, not that you're here any more.

[Via Eurogamer]