But, lo and behold, friends: Battlefield 3 is still absolutely a thing. Today, EA announced that all the Limited Editions of Medal Of Honor would come with a voucher that would, eventually, guarantee a spot in a Battlefield 3 beta. The proper, real-ass sequel to Battlefield 2. Battlefield 3 is still coming out.
Everyone: take a moment to remember your time playing Battlefield 2.
Good times.
OK, now come back to the story. We've got things to discuss. This news story brings up questions we need answered.
First of all, the game doesn't actually come with the beta on the disc or anything like that. Instead, the beta will be properly released at a later date. Furthermore, the Battlefield 3 beta information site specifies that invite is only valid provided that the beta is released "within 12 months of Medal of Honor's release, according to the official site. Given Medal of Honor's October 12 release date, it seems likely that Battlefield 3 will probably be touching down in late 2011 or early 2012, right? DICE is not Blizzard, and first-person shooters usually don't go into year-long open beta testing. So, it's entirely probable that Battlefield 3 release is still a ways off.
The other more interesting discussion, however, is about which platforms Battlefield 3 is being released on. On that same Battlefield 3 beta information site, EA states that, "Xbox GOLD membership required for Xbox users." It's possible that this is just some poorly worded boilerplate text or something, but that seems to imply that there will be a 360 version of Battlefield 3... meaning that Battlefield 3 is probably coming to consoles as well as the PC.
With a console release now a possibility, just how different will Battlefield 3 be from Bad Company 2?
A console release of a numbered Battlefield would mark a huge departure from the previous messaging about the future of the Battlefield franchise. By giving the console iterations of the game a different franchise name in Bad Company, EA and DICE sent a message that these console versions of Battlefield were definitely offshoots of the core, "real" franchise. To me that says that Battlefield 3, when it did come out, would be a PC-exclusive, and Bad Company was not intended to be Battlefield 3.
However, these beta invites are going out with the PC, PS3, and 360 Medal of Honor Limited Editions. Take that along with the messaging on the site and it wouldn't be far-fetched to expect Battlefield 3 on consoles as well as PC.
Granted, it's probably still way, way early to say any aspect of Battlefield 3 is set in stone, and there's at least a year until the game ships. Regardless, Battlefield 3 is coming, but who can say what form it will take when it finally arrives?
:/
How about invite the people from there silly battlefield veteran program thing. Also multiplatform BF3 makes me sad.
it makes me sad as well. i was really hoping for a PC exclusive
It will be interesting to see if they manage to get the huge scope of the PC Battlefield games to console, because I really hope they won't be scaling the PC game down because of console limitations.
It's good to see the "original" franchise continuing on, and by the way, DICE recently (last year) released a huge (1.3 GB) patch for Battlefield 2 - version 1.5 - that unlocked the DLC for all players and removed some of the copy protection (like the CD check and the requirement to activate the game on EA's Battlefield 2 site - since the URL for that doesn't work anymore).
So, now you can play the game on your modern flashy laptop without a DVD/CD drive (for owners of the retail that is, owners of the digital versions obviously didn't have to have any disc at all, but I'm not sure if the 1.5 patch has been applied to Steam and other digital distributors).
...goddamit.
Well the way Dice always put it they made it sound like Bad Company was console verson of Battlefield and that Battlefield 3 was the hot PCness but I guess things changed.
Why?
Course, BC2 is my first BC game, but having enjoyed that alot, I eagerly anticpate what an actual sequel to Battlefield will be like.
Maybe the BETA invites are for the PC version. So if you buy the 360/PS3 version of MoH, you get an invite to the PC BETA of BF3?
Look at the post above. :P