Australian Gamers Furious Over Battlefield 3 Premium Pricing Bungle

June 10th, 2012 at 12:10 am

Australian fans of the first-person shooter blockbuster Battlefield 3, published by EA and developed by DICE, were left furious this week after the new “Premium” service launched.

The service, which gives players who opt-in access to current and upcoming downloadable content as a discounted price (compared to buying them all separately), was advertised on the EA Games website at A$49.99.

When fans logged into the Battlefield 3 store using their PlayStation 3 console, however, the price was listed at A$79.95. Similarly, the Xbox 360 version of the game’s “Premium” service costs 4,000 Microsoft Points, which is equal to AU$66.

Legions of fans took to the Battlefield 3 Forums to complain and once EA took notice, they updated their website to include the words “Origin” – the publishers online, PC-only game download service which is similar to the more popular “Steam” from Valve – suggesting that the A$49.99 price is for the PC version only.

Even if that were the case, it would mean that PC owners are getting the DLC for the same price as, say, American owners, but console gamers have to pay extra – indeed, twice as much for the PlayStation 3 version.

So, what’s the go? Well, we reached out to EA for comment but unfortunately they did not return a reply. Likewise, the official BF3 forum thread was locked (but another one appeared almost instantly). Even more amusing/infuriating (depending on how you’re looking at this) is that fans’ comments are apparently being censored by moderators of the official forum.

Long time fans of the series will remember back in the unfortunately ironically named Battlefield: Bad Company 2 days when DICE promised they would never charge for map packs “unlike some others”.

Australian’s aren’t noobs when it comes to being ripped off on… well, everything. Our international readers would probably be interested to know it costs on average $4 for a small bottle of Coke, $8 for a bunch of bananas, $1.60 for a third of a gallon of fuel and around $110 for a full priced retail video game.

An Australian politician is launching a review into the wider problem of over-priced electronics, but is mainly targeting Apple – an iPad in Australia costs $150 more than in the United States, for example.

What are your thoughts on Battlefield 3′s pricing stuff up? Let us know in the comments below.

Tynan Muddle

Tynan is the founder, Editor-in-Chief and nice guy of Aussie-Gamer.com. The first console Ty owned as a kid was the Sega Master System II which he used to enjoy games like Alex Kidd, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mickey Mouse. Since the early days, Ty's hobby became an obsession and over the years he has amassed a huge collection of video games from all manufacturers. You can read Tynan Muddle's weekly opinion column here, and follow him on Twitter.

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Jim91

Props for getting on this Aussie-gamer crew! Well written. Would love to see something come of this.
- AussieGamer
  
  Thanks for reading!
  
  This has to get out. BF3 is a great game and all, but why should we constantly be ripped off? Meanwhile, the Battlefield twitter account is replying to people saying dumb stuff like “yay i liek this gam!!!” and serious questions about an almost illegal issue are just buried.
  
  Really lame of EA – who are really the ones to blame. DICE probably don’t have much say in prices..
  - http://www.facebook.com/michael.callahan.353 Michael Callahan
    
    This is seriously a bummer for you guys… I hope EA starts working it out and stop trying to screw its international gamers. You’re always welcome to come over and play at my place if you’re in the US haha.
fm

This post has been censored…
Is what EA wishes they could do to this article.
ownt! hahahahah

hahaha gf hahhaa I paid less in enbglaind!
- KIN0025
  
  Says someone who can’t spell England.
  - AussieGamer
    
    Some people think we were banished from England for stealing bread… We actually left because of this guy lol
    
    <3
    
    Let us know if there's any developments guys! Still haven't heard a word from EA about this. They announced details overnight about the next DLC which seems like a distraction tactic… the timing was very odd.
ownt! hahahahah

i pay less ahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa
ownt! hahahahah

ahahhahahahahahahaha gf aussies sgf!!!!!!!!!!!
ownt! hahahahah

gffffffff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ENGLAND!!!!!

owned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Sorry Guys!!
  
  Shut the fu** up you stupid tw**!! You’re making us Brits sound like tw**s, go back to school di*k
ENGLAND!!!!!

HAHAHAHAAHAHHAA
ENGLAND!!!!!

OWND!!
ENGLAND!!!!!

OWNT!”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GF PAY MORE I DIDN’T!!!!!!!
- Jon
  
  HA. YOUR COUNTRY HAS A 15% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE.
  HAHAAAAAA SUCK IT.
ENGLAND!!!!!

ENGL;AND BETTER AUSSIES FTLK!!!!!!! SUCKS!
Kiwi_Blue

New Zealand are also getting charged NZ$89.90 on the PS store, when the original (and now ‘origin only’) price was NZ$59.99.
Rippen

Awesome article! I hope the hardwork that everyone including myself has put into the battlelog thread gets this Resolved. Ea hope your taking notice now. This has to stop if you want to keep your customers.People Power.
Vic

Keep spreading the word, don’t roll over, that’s what they’re anticipating. They need to get the message that we WON’T let this issue die, even if I’m the last person I’ll keep giving them shit for it. What they’re doing just isn’t right. I could game-share with friends (it does work with this), but that would be sending them a message that “it’s ok” and we agree with their price and will happily take it up the arse for ALL future EA games. F that, it’s time to make a stand.
- AussieGamer
  
  I’ve re-sent the email requesting comment, this time to the UK office (thought that would be the next best option). Here’s what I wrote to EA;
  
  I write for Australian video game website Aussie-Gamer.com and was wondering if I could get EA’s official stance on an issue regarding the release of “Battlefield 3: Premium”.
  
  The series of events are listed below;
  
  1) EA Games states on their website (blog, Battlefield official site, etc) that “Battlefield 3 Premium” costs A$49.99
  
  2) PlayStation 3 owners are charged A$79.95
  
  3) Xbox 360 owners are charged A$66 (4000 Microsoft Points)
  
  4) EA Games changes their website to reflect the allusion that the $49.99 price was for the “Origin” or PC version of the game.
  
  5) A forum topic on the Official Battlefield 3 Forum that discusses this issue has been locked, preventing the community for commenting further.
  
  Would it be possible to get a comment on this issue? Specifically, I pose the following questions;
  
  - Why was the game originally advertised as being one blanket price of A$49.99 when the company only intended to sell the PC version at that price?
  
  - Why is there a discount on the exact same DLC offering on the PC version?
  
  - The Battlefield 3 Premium website says the five expansion packs are valued at A$99.95 if bought separately. Since this is only A$20 more than what PlayStation 3 owners are expected to pay, what other incentive is there for them to lock themselves into buying all the packs together, rather than buying them separately? This is also concerning for some players who have already purchased the “Back to Karkand” expansion pack; one could assume that each DLC pack is valued at A$19.99 (if 5 are $99.95 together), so a PlayStation 3 owner who already owns the “Back to Karkand” pack is essentially paying for it twice, and is still paying an extra $20 on top of that when compared to other gamers in other countries.
  
  I look forward to hearing from you.
  
  And now, we wait.
  - Jim91
    
    hay mate, another thing thats important to note is that they actually stated specifically on battlelog that the PS3 price would be AUD$49.99. and there is a screen shot of that on the thread!
    - Jim91
      
      PS keep up the good work man!
  - Jim91
    
    just read your post the post on battlelog, got an epic chubby
  - George
    
    how about complaining to the Australian Fair Trading commision?
    - AussieGamer
      
      This is on the cards I guess… we need more information. I’ll be contacting the ACCC on Tuesday (public holiday is on Monday) to see where consumers stand on this.
      
      After all – they advertise one price, then charge another. It’s simply not fair.
Boogs

I think it’s horrible that they’re charging PS3 and 360 owners more in Australia. I am, however, glad that for once we weren’t ripped off for the PC price. We got a fair deal. If the alternative was that we all got ripped off, we would have griped but nothing would have gotten done about it, just like with Karkand. Oh, and the prices are worse than you write – Karkand is $19.99 now, but on release it was like Close Quarters is now, at $23.95. There is no saving for PS3 owners at all.
N3M3S1S75

Sick of always having to suffer the “Australian Tax” on our games, EA just because others over charge doesn’t mean you should, as gamers we should boycott this Premium service, I hardly buy games from Australia anymore especially with websites like ozgameshop.com selling new release PS3/xbox 360 games for about AU$55-$60. By not purchasing this then they will learn(hopefully).