Battlefield Heroes looks interesting! Pity, then, that I wont' be able to play it, as EA have announced that despite being a free download, the game won't be available to players in places like Australia, New Zealand, Japan...South Africa, and...oh, Mexico. Anywhere outside the US and Europe, actually. No reason was given for the snub, so we're tossing up whether it's something to do with the title's in-game advertising or simply EA waking up on the wrong side of their big, cushy corporate bed all week



all who want to play this game sing'up at EA Australia and let them know what aussie gamers want

err link?

It was always a North America and Europe thing, from the press release last year:

Chertsey, UK January 21, 2008 - At the Digital, Life, Design Conference (DLD) in Munich, Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) today unveiled Battlefield Heroes™, an all-new Play 4 Free cartoon-style shooter that will bring classic Battlefield gameplay to an all new mass audience. Available for download at www.battlefield-heroes.com this summer, Battlefield Heroes is EA's first title that is offered completely for free, and features a built-in matchmaking system to ensure that players of equal skill are paired together for fair play. Developed by DICE in Stockholm, Battlefield Heroes is leading EA's new web-focused free to download, free to play business model which generates revenue through advertising and micro-transactions. With zero barriers to entry, now anyone can be a hero on the battlefield!

"Online gaming garners a massive audience," said Gerhard Florin, EVP Publishing Americas-Europe at EA. "People want to play games in new ways, with easier access that is quick to the fun. With Battlefield Heroes, EA brings its first major franchise to North America and Europe with a new distribution model and pricing structure adapted to the evolving way that people play."

Battlefield Heroes is a brand new game from the team behind Battlefield 1942™ and Battlefield 2™. It's fun cartoon-style graphics and gameplay caters to players of all skill levels. It is easy to pick up and play but with robust character customization and a deep online meta-game, gamers can spend hours building up their characters and conquering the world.

"We put a different twist on this Battlefield game going with the cartoon-style graphics and gameplay," added Ben Cousins, Senior Producer at EA DICE. "There's something here for all types of players — be it our core Battlefield fans or casual gamers. With the new online model, we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games."

Battlefield Heroes will be released for the PC as a free download in summer 2008. This product is not yet rated by PEGI or ESRB. For more information on EA DICE, please visit www.dice.se or www.ea.com.

The Internet only exists in the USA dudes. Also Europe.

go Europe!

Just when EA was worming their way back into my good books.
GO BURN

gee I wish the technology existed that would allow us to take a copy and try it for ourselves all the same.


that would be 'neat'

hmm... actually... maybe this is a sign.


perhaps it's the same old s*** that no hardcore fps gamer would accept as 'playable'.


we're kinda finicky when it comes to our gaming dollah

I don't get it
how do they stop us from downloading it again?

I don't understand what you're saying.

did you mean dl legally or somthing else?

Thats pretty lame. I know we only have 20 million people, but why would they not realease a product that has already been made to another 20 million people, it doesnt make sense.

Probably coz we have no r18+ rating and they don't want to get raped by lawyers claiming their kids turned into murderous f*****s because someone called them a pretty little prissy sissy girly man over the internet.

What's this Internet thing you're talking about?

lol you caveman, you haven't got dial-up yet?

I don't get it
how do they stop us from downloading it again?

Geo-IP targeting can stop you playing it if they bother going that far

just pirate it...


:P

f***.

This game actually looks cool.

f*** you EA, f*** you.

Well its a fps, so there wont be any australian servers, so why would you even bother trying to "pirate" it?

its nothing to do with ea usa its all got to do with EA Australia they don't want anything to do with it ....
you know EA Australia knows what you want consoles crapbox350 & pisss***3 no pc games and no freaken way if we make nothing out of it ........

Who cares. If it handles anything like the other battlefield games it will be s***. Feels like you have a ride-on lawn mower stuck to your back when you move around.
Can't stand the feel of those terrible engines.

consoles crapbox350 & pisss***3

MORE LIKE AUSXBOXGAMERS!

From BF Heroes site:

Battlefield Heroes™ is a free cartoon-style shooter for the PC

From press-release above:

With Battlefield Heroes, EA brings its first major franchise to North America and Europe with a new distribution model and pricing structure adapted to the evolving way that people play.

Is the new pricing structure "free games everyone!"

I know I'm slow, but I don't follow.

its nothing to do with ea usa its all got to do with EA Australia they don't want anything to do with it ....
you know EA Australia knows what you want consoles crapbox350 & pisss***3 no pc games and no freaken way if we make nothing out of it ........

I don't know why you think EA Australia would have anything to do with this at all.. certainly not our experience of the situation after talking to them about it.

I know I'm slow, but I don't follow.

EA will make their money with advertising while the game loads.

Also you'll be paying "micro-transactions" to buy gun upgrades. Never fear though, the rich kids won't have all the best guns, the upgrades are ment to be TF2 like. ie: differant not better.

someone will crack it to play it in any country

lol, cracking a free to play game

The logical extrapolation here you can make by looking at BF2 and BF2142 is that they want to retain full control over the entire service. This almost certainly will not be a traditional FPS in the sense of the word, if recent BF history is anything to be judged by.

I was SUPER stoked for BF2 - but as soon as I found out about their ranked server model and global stats I immediately lost interest, because it took it from a regular FPS into a weird gated community in which only a few people could participate. Our attitude at AusGamers (and Mammoth) has ALWAYS been that communities form around latency, and that's something that many game developers around the world didn't get and never understood (and, obviously, still don't), and by allowing anyone to run servers anywhere at any time, you create the best possible environment for gamers.

BF2 and BF2142 went the other way - EA and Dice thought that they could ensure a better quality by only letting "elite" people run servers. This flies directly in the face of all evidence that games are not so stupid as to play on a s***ty laggy server run by losers when there are better options available.

At first glance it might look like EA hasn't figured out they can sell things to everyone on the Internet at the same time all over the world, and that's why that press release says we're not getting BF: Heroes. But I don't think that's the case any more (even though it does fit Hanlon's Razor as the most likely explanation.

However, I no longer think that is the case. If the last few years of the great Australian dollar and the s***ty prices we've copped has taught me anything, it's that big companies want to screw you against the wall as much as they can, and regionalised pricing enforced on a per-territory basis is the best way to do that.

I suspect (but, let me be clear, I have no evidence about this and EA have told me nothing) that Australia and other territories are on the radar at some point, but the first step will be to roll this game out in the big markets, see how it goes, and if it's looking good then start figuring out how to deploy in the "lesser" regions with localised currency and all that jazz.

I like to think I know a few things about games, especially FPS games that utilise client/server technology. We've made it our profession for the last 8 years and it was a hobby long before that. I don't think that EA are going about this the right way and I don't think they have been for a while - even though BF2 was a pretty huge success I think it could have been improved immeasurably by a few simple things (more flexible modding, unrestricted access to the ranked server system, less emphasis on global stats, more emphasis on patching). They've done a lot of stuff right but I just think about how much more that game could have been and I get SAD FACE. Ditto BF2142, which was clearly rushed out a la BFV for the quick sales.

Failing to release a game in other territories (which will cost practically nothing to do and has the potential to make money) just seems like a massive failure to me, not to mention the obvious disappointment as an Australian gamer getting screwed yet again. Why are we going backwards?

This is from the Battlefield Heroes website, posted in May 2008.

One quick 'rumor squashing' comment: A few news sites seem to be reporting that Battlefield Heroes will not be available in Australia. This is most certainly not the case. Battlefield Heroes is available as a free download from the web, and as such would probably be available even if you connect to the internet via a satellite dish from a small unheated hut on the steppes of Uzbekistan.

I could only find a cached version of the site though, because it seems that they've since removed the post or something.

http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=10107

EA to release new Battlefield game - PC Gaming News - Australia's
you will need to cheek this out 2 days a go i let ea Australia know that they dont know the aussie gamer and what games we want
coppy and search net for above

ps ea Australia dont like gamers telling them off about bfh
after all they know want games we aussie's want to play sport and football fkn jocks

I like the first comment on that site:

Battlefield Heroes? Moar liek Team Battlefortress 2: Heroes, amirite?

you will need to cheek this out 2 days a go i let ea Australia know that they dont know the aussie gamer and what games we want
coppy and search net for above

ps ea Australia dont like gamers telling them off about bfh
after all they know want games we aussie's want to play sport and football fkn jocks

do they speak english in what?

god damn that sux. Thanks EA.

wet wired, not a fan of english mate,
just aussie's
if your the only one who cant read that you need glass'ers

nobody can read that you retarded mexican.

Geo-IP targeting can stop you playing it if they bother going that far

I might be old, but i still know how to mod software thank you young fella

if it's a good enough fps it'll see a community build locally.. 'legit' or not

nice post trog & micro payment services for the lose...

Guess I better enjoy the beta while it lasts. Such a fun time wasting game :(

aother reason to say "f*** EA".