Battlefield Heroes to have just two maps

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 2nd April 2008
Comments (16) Stumble
The cel-shaded look of Battlefield Heroes has irked some, but excited others.

The cel-shaded look of Battlefield Heroes has irked some, but excited others.

The producer of the upcoming freebie game in the long-running Battlefield franchise, Battlefield Heroes, has revealed that the game will launch with just two maps for players to wage war in.

Though the game, which is being developed by DICE, is still being planned as an utterly free-to-play game which will generate profit through micro-transactions the developers still aren't trying to create a huge selection of playing fields.

"We bust our asses making 50 maps, and then within six months of the game being released, everyone's playing two maps. The two best maps," said producer Ben Cousins to Gamasutra "So, we just decided to make just the two best maps, and not the other kind of maps."

Um, I guess that makes sense. Those maps better be 25x as good though!

Speaking about why DICE was taking such a radical risk with a diminutive, cel-shaded and free-to-play shooter in an established franchise, Ben said that the developer was really just experimenting.

"If you look at what's happened in South Korea over the recent years, there's this new business model which has cropped up, which is games which are free-to-play, but where a certain proportion of the audience buy items...we just thought, 'Well, let's just try this. We've got an existing engine, we could probably do it with a pretty small team; let's just experiment.'"

Got an opinion on micro-transactions and free-to-play games? Let us know in the forums.
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Quote DXR_13KE 2nd April 2008, 14:01
at least it is free....
Quote Redbeaver 2nd April 2008, 14:07
im both excited and irked at the same time. looks like a fun game, but the fact that TF2 is out there just really bothers me. its just EA.
Quote sotu1 2nd April 2008, 14:15
just two? at least make it somethin reasonable like 4 maps! That basically means (most likely) strike at karkand equivalent for infantry map and wake island for an air map where a few players hog the planes and whup everyone else standing on the ground twidling their thumbs.

shame. and i was really looking forward to this too.
Quote wuyanxu 2nd April 2008, 14:28
at least it's free...... let's have a go at BF games and see what's the fuzz is all about
Quote UncertainGod 2nd April 2008, 14:36
As long as they plan to add more maps or a level editor then I'm happy.
Quote BigD79 2nd April 2008, 14:36
Like the bloke said (in a round about sort of way) - why bother spending time and money developing maps for a free game, that may not even be a hit and lose EA money? Will be interesting to see how this pans out.
Quote Veles 2nd April 2008, 14:37
So long as they're two good maps I'm not really bothered.

I'm also not that bothered about it "ripping off" TF2, at first I was, but now I've gone into it a bit more I like it. Yeah it's cartoony, but TF2 wasn't the first either, and that's basically where the similarities end, the actual cartoon style and graphics are different. They've gone for almost a WW2 pinup art style which fits really well.
Quote steveo_mcg 2nd April 2008, 14:44
The main problem with it only being two maps is replayability, if you get bored of the two maps or if they aren't to your style of play then you won't play the game free or not. Given that this time the games profitability comes from how many times the game is started (from ads on the web start page) you would think they'd put some more effort into keeping people, i suppose they might just do that with new content but who trusts EA to produce freebies and patches? By the same engine is this the BF2 engine?
Quote lewchenko 2nd April 2008, 14:51
This is horrific news.

Dont think for a minute that the maps will be like Karkand on BF2... Have you all seen the graphics engine this 'free' game uses. Its cartoonish, old, and to top it off... in 3rd person. Having seen the video I was not impressed at all. In the slightest. This is no TF2 clone, its a step backward by far.

This game seriously doesnt deserve to use the Battlefield title. It is a farce.

Even BF2 and 2142 didnt come with enough maps to stop you getting bored. It doesnt matter how good the maps are... they will get boring pretty quick if thats all you have access to. EA's reasoning in this case is pathetic. They just cannot be bothered.

Just hurry up and finish the real BF3.. and do a decent job of it this time.. none of this 'patch it ad-hoc for a year' until it works.
Quote Narishma 2nd April 2008, 15:02
The good thing is it looks interesting, the bad is that it's EA. They're doomed to screw it somehow.
Quote Jordan Wise 2nd April 2008, 15:07
to be honest, if the game had big maps like bf2 did, then yes, people end up playing the same map. i know Strike at Karkand as well as i know my back garden, but when games use smaller maps like tf2 you need a few to cycle
Quote sub routine 2nd April 2008, 17:38
pfft, it`s free what do you expect. It`ll be cheap to produce they`ll see if the business madel works or not. Ea aren`t really about games they`re about managers making money, but hey the whole industry appears to be going that way now.

I for one am looking forward to it, I loved bf2 and think tf2 is ace. Yes they`re copying the genre but you can`t copyright a style thank god!!
If it`s good that only makes the market place more competitive, if it`s crap it`ll die off quickly...simple
Quote sub routine 2nd April 2008, 17:42
Actually thinking about it, if done right it could be a really clever way to end game piracy. If the game is free in the first place they don`t lose anything right?

Better quality games at a cheaper price with more profits going to the developers. The only thing that worries me is how they`ll handle the advertising. I HATE advertising!
Quote LordPyrinc 3rd April 2008, 00:46
"The two best maps," By who's judgement? This could really flop if they choose two maps that they think are the best but the gamer community as a whole don't like. Micro-transactions or not, if most people don't like the maps, who is going to pay for the upgrades?
Quote Zut 3rd April 2008, 12:24
What?! This goes from bad to worse.

I will NEVER play this game, on principal. Frankly I've been completely put off DICE altogether lately.
Quote Cthippo 3rd April 2008, 20:14
Hey, they're trying something new. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't, but I applaud thenm at least giving a new business model a shot.
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