In a move that should surprise no one, EA has decided to milk… I mean provide their fine customers a chance to enhance their purchase of Battlefield: Bad Company with a selection of several additional weapons via the various digital marketplaces. It’s common knowledge that EA, Namco and really just about all the big boys nowadays, have learned to embrace the digital distribution channels available with the current gen systems, but some have made their offerings more consumer friendly and or worthwhile than others. I mean who can forget Oblivion’s horse armor? It was armor… for your horse… that, unlike in an MMORPG, no one else but you would ever really enjoy, and served no practical purpose in the game.

But let’s forget all that, and let’s forget all the various downloads that we savvy consumers realized were just unlock keys to assets already on the disc, and lets focus on this latest news from EA. If we look closely at our story over at IGN we get some relatively reassuring details about these “extra weapons” that doesn’t make the whole affair sound too terrible. IGN has a nice quote from a spokesperson for EA revealing that:

“Battlefield: Bad Company will release five unique weapons free of charge through five different promotional programs prior to launch. EA will again make these weapons available to players free of charge after launch, in case anyone missed the pre-launch promotions. At launch, EA will release a Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company which will feature an additional five new weapons. For players who do not purchase the Gold Edition of the game, they can still buy the five weapons at a small individualized price per item. All weapons are balanced for gameplay. More weapons offer players more choices but do not create an advantage/disadvantage for players who do not opt to buy new items.”

So you see, you will have an option to get these bad boys for free, provided you pre-order your copy at what sounds like five different retailers. Wait, what! So if you follow the establishments rules to pre-order your copy, they will give you a free digital gun. But wait, they said you can still get chance by some vague reference of “EA will again make these weapons available to players free of charge after launch, in case anyone missed the pre-launch promotions.” But they are also selling a gold edition with what sounds like 5 other new weapons, and those will have a charge after the fact, costing more I assume than if you were smart and got the gold edition.

Fine, fine if the weapons are balanced as they say, it should just be a matter of unique looks for those who want. A ballistics equivalent to new outfits if you will. What really concerns me is these pre-order guns. Have we really come to an age when even our bonus schwag for pre-ordering will be digital?! I call BS on this practice. I want my nerdy t-shirts, or goofy stuffed characters. Will I not be receiving any cool patches, or stickers or soundtrack cd’s in this bizarro world they’re creating? These companies are really making out like bandits as it is with digital distro, and they’re still charging me an average $60 for new releases. The least they can do is throw me a tangible collectible. I like the idea of most digital downloads. Prices feel reasonable for the most part, and it’s a convenient way for me to prolong the life of my games when the publishers do it right. But let’s not cut out too much of the physical content, I know PC games have offered bonus in game items before, but if this starts becoming standard practice for all games it gives me even less incentive to play their stupid pre-order game. Take note game makers, people like free crap, even if it is cheap schwag. Hell, why do you think Happy Meals are so popular, it’s not because of their great tasting food contents.