In an interview with Games Industry International, EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau said:

“We’ve launched subscription businesses in our other categories. We had EA Sports subscription before Elite came out, so adding that component to the design is not a reaction. It’s something we’d always been considering and we had been looking at. We didn’t have it ready for launch and it took us some time to get it prepped. Having said that, they [Activision] did something really innovative and if your competitor does something innovative and you think it applies to what you can do, then there’s no harm in doing that,” he said. “This is an industry where people have a lot of oneupsmanship and if somebody innovates, you match it or you exceed it.”

With the success that EA has achieved with first its sports subscription and now Battlefield 3 Premium, we can all look forward to the day when we get the Need For Speed Premium emails from Origin. Then what is next is obvious. I think that eventually you will only be able to purchase DLC in gigantic $50-$60 “premium” packs. so that the developers can “justify’ the fact that they “only” charge you $60 to “buy” a game. Lots of quotations expresses the severe sarcasm in my remarks.

Here is the who, what, where, when, and why of the double XP event:

July Double XP event

- What: Double your net score after every round

-Who: All players

-When: July 2-8 for Premium members, July 2-4 for non-Premium members

-Starts: 00:01 PDT/07:01 UTC July 2 (click link for handy time conversion tool)

-Ends for non-Premium members: 13:00 PDT/20:00 UTC July 4

-Ends for Premium members: 23:59 PDT July 8/06:59 UTC July 9

So there you go. Non-subscribers get the event from today through midday on Wednesday, and Premium members get it until July 8th. The double XP events are truly worth your time if you are a low level and trying to get that precious USAS 12 unlock. It is not uncommon to have a 60,000 point round these days with all of the “special events!”

Here is the trailer for the “Close Quarters” DLC maps and the pure destruction and double XP goodness that can come with the maps:

From my personal experience with the Battlefield franchise and in dealing with DICE, the amount of content, double XP events, and new content is well worth the price of $50. The only problem is that this will now mean that nearly every Battlefield game from now until forever will cost me $110 from the get go because these games will now launch with the premium service.

Battlefield 3 had a lot of huge problems when it first launched, all of which have been solved. To have a new service like this show that there are still near 1 million active players that will be enjoying this game until at least March when the last bit of DLC comes out, shows how robust the Battlefield community really is.

Here is the official Battlefield 3 Premium launch trailer that actually showed of some pretty cool stuff like the addition of dirt bikes:

To get this double XP weekend all you have to do is go to the in game store and purchase the premium package. Then go download “Close Quarters” and enjoy the chaos that Battlefield 3 is becoming. Make sure that if you do decide to purchase Premium that you do it through the in game store and not the PSN store. There have been several reports of people having to pay twice for the DLC when bought through the store.

Need the who, what, where, when, and why? Here is all the info you need directly from the official Battlefield Blog?:

Who: Exclusive to Premium members only
Formats: All
Servers: Any ranked
Game modes: Any
Maps: Any (Base game, Back to Karkand, and Close Quarters)
What: Double everything
When: See table below

PDT timings (Los Angeles)
Event starts Saturday 23, 07:01
Event ends Monday 25, 06:59

Full time schedule
Double XP event timings
Click the link above for full reference of the starting time in a number of cities (this time converter does not support one minute intervals, so is four minutes off)

Or you could just look at this handy list for starting times in a number of great cities around the world. The event ends after 48 hours.

Event start times
Los Angeles – June 23 – 00:01:00
Stockholm – June 23 – 09:01:00
Paris – June 23 – 09:01:00
New York – June 23 – 03:01:00
Tokyo – June 23 – 16:01:00
Moscow – June 23 – 11:01:00

The new map pack titled Close Quarters, features 4 small maps with the focus being on person to person combat. The pure amount of destruction in the levels has been increased due to the complete lack of vehicles or rolling vistas.

Before you start complaining about how this isn’t Battlefield, they are planning on making up for it with the next expansion pack that will be titled “Armored Kill,” it will feature maps that are geared towards vehicle combat. Some are expecting more maps like the “Heavy Metal” map from Battlefield: Bad Company 2. After that there will be 2 more map packs that will be released, with the very last one coming in March of 2013 that will feature dirt bikes for the first time!

Check out the trailer for “Close Quarters” below:

Los Angeles: 00:01 June 16
London: 8:01 AM June 16
Stockholm: 9:01 AM June 16
Tokyo: 4:01 PM June 16

So as you can see the event is for the 16th and 17th of June and will give everyone a chance to earn major XP. Need the Who, What, Why, When, and Where of the event? Here you go courtesy of the Battlefield Blog:

What: Double XP event to celebrate the launch of Battlefield 3: Close Quarters
When: 00:01 AM PDT June 16th – 11:59 PM PDT June 17th
Formats: All
Criteria: All players, both Premium and non-Premium members
Servers: Any ranked server
Game modes: Any
Maps: Any (including base game, Back to Karkand, and Close Quarters)
What: Double everything!

This is all part of DICE/EA’s pledge to have more events such as this to coincide with the launch of last weeks Battlefield Premium. Look for many more of these to come. The biggest difference is that for this event you do not have to be a premium member.

Oh and for a kick, check out the season finale for the Battlefield Friends series:

“Our apologies to Battlefield 3 Premium members. An error with :close quarters expansion pack has been resolved. Please go into the PSN store and locate the Battlefield 3: Close Quarters” add-o. OInce there, re-download and install the add-on and then launch the game.”

There is an attachment link for the download in the email and the size of the download is 1142 mb so it is a redownload of the “Close Quarters” maps.

I have to say, at least DICE was on top of this. Most of the time with this game they ignore it for months on end without even recognizing the problem. Maybe they are finally listening?

Thanks to Banangy for the heads up on this!

Here is the launch trailer for Battlefield 3 “Close Quarters>’ In case you haven’t seen it yet:

Jack Tretton is sucking up to Kaz Harai and this company really is relying on this one man to turn this company around.

- They are introducing a new IP from the developer of Heavy Rain, Quantum Dream. Their new project is titled “Beyond – Two Souls.” Ellen Paige will play the main character named Jodi Holmes. They are showing the first part of the game and made sure to say that it is all running in real time. No KZ3 speculation for this team. It looks amazing, just like Heavy Rain. If you are into interactive movies, then this is the game for you.

- They are talking about the Michael commercial. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here:

They are really prepping for Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale. Two new characters have been introduced! Big Daddy from the Bioshock games and Nathan Drake from the Uncharted franchise! All Stars will be on the Vita and will be cross compatible and a cross platform title. if you haven’t seen this title, imagine Super Smash Bros. but with Playstation centric characters. It is very frantic but the levels seem to be way more interactive than the SSB franchise. The game will launch this holiday season.

- Littlebigplanet 2 will use the Vita to be a controller for the game! This is exactly what I hoped for. Imagine the Vita as a menu for your items in a RPG? They need to keep doing this!

- They are pumping up the PSN. boasting over 1,500 titles with Journey leading the way. The PSN will be having over 200 games in the next year.

- PS plus is being talked about. LittleBigPlanet 2, Infamous2, and Saints Row 2 will be free for download tomorrow in what is the major overhaul we were looking for. They are giving away a year free of PS Plus to the audience.

- The Vita will have 60 new titles available. Also you can play PS1 classics on your Vita now. So bring FF7 anywhere. Hulu Plus and Crakle are coming to Vita sometime soon. Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified is the new FPS coming to the Vita!

- They are teasing a new Vita game from Ubisoft and it is an Assassins Creed game! Assassins Creed 3: Liberation. Your character looks like she is a pirate and takes place in 1700′s New Orleans! It comes out on October 30th for the Vita. They are offering it in a bundle with the game, a 4 GB memory card and the all new crystal white Vita.

- Assassins Creed 3 is up next! Here comes some Ubisoft guys! They are showing some gameplay and it is a battle at sea! The game looks pretty good and pretty intense! It has a pretty cool aiming mechanism for lining up your ship for a broadside attack on an English vessel! Now on to the hand to hand combat part of the game but they cut it short. It will launch with a new PS3 bundle!

- Far Cry 3 is up next! I love this open world franchise. Far Cry 3 features 4 player co-op. What an awesome turn. They really did keep it a secret! It looks sweet but it really will require true teamwork! Far Cry 3 also includes a map editor! I’m super pumped for this! The PS3 will get some exclusive DLC for the game.

- Next up is …….Move….great. Wonderbook: Book of Spells is up next. You use a book for an augmented reality type game. It looks cool, but it also looks like what the eye pet was suppose to be. Also being shown is a game with Wonderbook is also getting a Wizarding game from JK Rowling. It is called the Book of Spells! It does take place in the world of Harry Potter which is cool. The game actually looks kinda neat. but it will be interesting to see how well the game actually works in the home. It is already having problems with it’s recognition on a huge well lit stage. Harry Potter is huge so good job for Sony to get something like this.

- Playstation Suite is up next. The Suite is coming to HTC phones next! They are the first non-Sony platform. Also suite is being renamed “Playstation Mobile.”

- God Of War: Ascension is next. As usual this game looks utterly amazing. It really is hard to tell if the God Of War franchise or the Uncharted franchise looks better. Kratos has some sort of gem that reverses time. Interesting to see how he gets that. The game is over the top which is one of the reasons why it rocks! They also finally show the new chest smashing technique so you no longer have to stop to open a chest. Big Elephant dude getting tore up now! Kratos has super moves now! The game comes out March 12th of 2013!

- The Last of Us is next. This is the new IP from Naughty Dog. this is the first gameplay that I have seen and it looks great! The combat looks dynamic and there are a lot of great different styles to play as. It is brutal and real and pretty dang awesome to be honest with you.

So, Sony neither wowed us or disappointed us. It would have been nice to get a teaser of the new Console, they would have stole the show actually. But with The Last of Us, Beyond – Two Souls, and God Of War: Ascension. Sony has their AAA franchises going strong. The biggest things for me were the reveal of 4 player co-op for Far Cry 3, and the inclusion of the Vita being used as the controller for LittleBigPlanet 2. That is the future of Playstation to me. I don’t want to guarantee this, but I will bet money that nearly every game on the PS4 will be able to use the Vita as a controller. I give this a B minus. No Holy crap moment, no what the hell moment either.

Here is the complete show for you to check out:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The service was initially teased earlier last week with tons of rumors regarding price and release date and what exactly it would contain. Then yesterday a trailer was leaked. So now that the service has officially been confirmed, what did the report say about it?

The report has a few goodies that are totally worth mentioning:

- EA has sold 15 million copies of Battlefield 3 across 3 platforms. This is major because a lot of people were fed up with the COD franchise and looked elsewhere. It looks as though EA/DICE did exactly what they wanted to do with the game.

- The service will indeed be $50 and will launch on June 4th.

- The huge news out of this piece is that Playstation 3 players will get all future DLC 2 weeks earlier than Xbox 360 or PC now instead of 1 week earlier. This is kind of big.

Here is the leaked trailer:

What Did We Learn?

Aside form the fact that DICE/EA can make great videos, a lot actually. Most of what we learned are specifics instead of generalities that we had before.

- We find out that there will indeed be 20 new guns added to the arsenal. That should be 5 new assignments per DLC pack, but there are no confirmations as to if these will be available immediately or if you will have to earn them.

- There will also be more than 10 new vehicles. This includes the return of the awesome ATV. Also shown in a roll of new vehicles but noot shown playable are a C-130 hercules transport plane in what could definitely be a Spectre gunship. Mobile artillery like a howitzer is also shown. And rocket trucks which makes me believe that DICE is bringing back the air raid portion of the game like in BF 1943. If you haven’t played BF 1943 check this out:

- Exclusive camo for weapons and kits. So they are bringing a sense of customization to the game after all.

- We also get the confirmation of some new game modes. Conquest assault which we have already seen in the back to Karkand expansion, Tank Superiority which I’m betting is an “Armored Kill” exclusive mode, and Gun Master which has never been mentioned before but wouldn’t surprise me if it is like the gun game mode from COD.

So htere is a bunch of great looking stuff that is sure to make for a great experience. How it will work or if it will get delayed at all are the better questions to ask.