Why Are There No New Maps Or Content For The BFBC2 VIP Program?

Though the buy-new incentive ‘Project Ten Dollar’ was implemented for Bad Co 2, Battlefield fans everywhere claim that the VIP program has presented little value for their money. Instead of getting any new content, the program has taken to re-releasing established maps in different modes–and even simple costume changes, which end up being slight recolors of established models, or the only new mode, Onslaught, have cost Battlefield players money. This has set precedent to the feeling that if Battlefield players want to experience new content, they’re going to have to fork over cash to do it. So, what gives? Well, the Battlefield Community manager had the following to say on the subject:

How come you are releasing map packs and not “new” maps?

“The idea of the VIP program was to make sure that we had a continuous flow of content to our players, to keep the Battlefield updated with new places to fight in. We also wanted to make sure these were free of charge to the people with VIP codes. The remixed maps has worked great for this but we clearly also hear the community request for new maps. Naturally these are much heavier to create from a dev stand point and hence the lead times are longer.”

So, there you have it.

Now, at the risk of sounding cynical, I’m going to guess they have little incentive to release new content because not only is DICE working on Medal of Honor, but there’s also a full-fledged expansion–Vietnam–which will be released later this year. Intuition tells me Vietnam will be their response to our cries for ‘new content.’

Interestingly, other ‘Project Ten Dollar’ iterations–like the Cerberus Network for Mass Effect 2–have managed to churn out a lot of new content in a shorter time frame at zero expense to those in the program.