Like Call of Duty Elite, EA's Premium service for Battlefield 3 may not be the best deal for consumers—but it's the only deal worth getting for diehard fans of the game, especially since the alternative means paying more for each individual DLC.
Speaking to GI International, EA's Frank Gibeau said that the company has plans to expand its Premium service to other properties, notably those in the EA Sports lineup.
"We had EA Sports subscription before Elite came out, so adding that component to the design is not a reaction," he said. "It’s something we’d always been considering and we had been looking at. We didn’t have it ready for launch and it took us some time to get it prepped. Having said that, they [Activision] did something really innovative and if your competitor does something innovative and you think it applies to what you can do, then there’s no harm in doing that.
"This is an industry where people have a lot of oneupsmanship and if somebody innovates, you match it or you exceed it."
In this case, the innovations Gibeau refers to only benefit the publisher—not the consumers, who have long enjoyed the release of free content add-ons in games like The Witcher 2 and Team Fortress 2. Likewise, 343 Industries also appears to disagree with EA and Activision's policies by offering similar benefits for owners of the upcoming Halo 4 for absolutely free.
We hope more developers and publishers realize that there is more than one way to do things.
