Battlefield Buyer Beware

I’ll just be up front about this: I’m a cheapskate. My cheapskate-ness stretches across all of my purchasing decisions – groceries, electronics, clothing and games to name a few. I’ve always been pretty thrifty, but being a fledgling father that supporting his wicked-awesome new son and lovely stay-at-home wife, thrift is an necessity. Having an expensive hobby like gaming can be a bit difficult for me and my fellow cheapskates. Thankfully we live in a time when game sales are plentiful and the used game market is thriving. Online game trading site Goozex (which is amazing, by the way) has been a total Godsend that’s allowed me to enjoy all of the new goodness for just a couple bucks per trade and a bit of patience.

Problem is, game publishers make their money off the initial sale of the game (and any ensuing DLC) but they don’t see a dime come from aftermarket sales. And with the economy being in the crapper for the foreseeable future, I’d wager that used game sales and online game swapping are only going to keep increasing.

To entice “the cheapos” to buy new, it’s become commonplace to offer unique in-game items (special armor, character skins, etc.) or special editions (night vision goggles, anyone?) to those preordering or purchasing at retail. Given that these really don’t affect the core game that I’m buying on the disc, that’s perfectly fine. If people want to dress up Dante from Dante’s Inferno as Isaac Clarke from Dead Space, they can go nuts. And people will. I know people that love that stuff.

But today I saw a new twist  to force people to purchase at retail: locking content on the game disc that you just purchased because you didn’t buy from a given retailer. Case in point, as explained today on Gamasutra:

The North American console versions of DICE's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 are saddled with an unusual multiplayer restriction: for the first month following the game's release, only those who preordered the game from GameStop will have access to the game's "Squad Rush" multiplayer mode.

The mode is an objective-based battle between two teams of four players each. Those with preorder-based access will also be able to invite their friends to play with them throughout the 30-day exclusivity period.

PC copies of Bad Company 2, which share a March 2 release date with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, have no such multiplayer restrictions, nor do any of the European SKUs launching three days later.

The first Bad Company featured a weapon set that could be unlocked if you A) jumped through a handful of annoying self-promotional hoops place there by EA, or B) waiting for EA to provide the unlock. I begrudgingly chose option A and gained access to weapons that turned out to be not all that great after all.

I loved the first Bad Company and was planning on purchasing BC2 in March. What I didn’t plan on was having to purchase from Gamestop to play content that will be locked if I purchase from, say, Amazon or Best Buy. I’m still going to buy the game, but absolutely not from GameStop. I’ll wait my four weeks to play what should rightfully be available, or at least somehow attainable, from the get-go. I have principals; one of which dictates that it’s wrong to seal off content on a disc that I just purchased.

Oh EA, you woo me with awesome new IP like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and (slightly rip-off-y) Dante’s Inferno, and then you do something underhanded like this. Unacceptable.