Battlefield Heroes Store Update Gives Upper Hand to Microtransaction Users, Outrages Everyone Else

Posted 12/02/2009 at 12:14am | by Nathan Grayson

4

Comments

Print

Battlefield Heroes, DICE’s “free-to-play” browser-based installment in the Battlefield franchise, has declared war on gamers’ wallets with a recent update. In a nutshell, the update ensures that Valor Points – an earnable in-game currency – get you far less bang for your buck, while all microtransaction-based “Battlefund” price tags have seen a significant reduction.

Whereas before, upping your arsenal on skill alone was a perfectly viable option, now the best weapons are virtually out of you reach unless your outstretched hand contains some cold hard cash. But it can’t be that bad, right? Fans – who’ve officially hit the boiling point on the Outrage-O-Meter – say differently.

"So, 450 VP a day... at a maximum of 7 VP a game, that's 50 games a day. About 4 hours worth of playing," one fan explained. "Now, when you lose a round you can only get 5 VP, making the amount of rounds you need to play each day to keep ONE weapon about 60, which is about 5 hours playtime, every day, for one Uber/Super weapon."
  
"Now it's impossible for me to play the game for free. I can't even afford the long ranged pistol anymore, let alone bandages. Let me make this clear: now it takes 22 wins for us to earn enough VPs to rent a weapon for a day. If each match is 10 minutes long, that means I'll have to play for 3 hours and a half with a stellar team just to afford the weapon. This is not a casual game. I can't even be a knife + pistol commando anymore," wrote another fan.

To be fair, calling EA’s financial fortunes of late a “disaster” would be charitable, with the publisher ultimately deciding to lay-off 1,500 employees, including Mercenaries developer Pandemic. Our guess? Battlefield Heroes needs to get profitable in a hurry, or else it might be next in line for the chopping block.

Edit: Removed insenstive content. Our apologies to those who were offended.