I guess they didn't want the same thing to happen with this game as happened to Crysis. Maybe they realized PC games don't sell well when you can just download them for free.

It's worth noting that Battlefield is not their best WW2 FPS game, a new one hasn't been put out in years, and they were usually trash when they were put out.
As far as microtransactions are concerned, I prefer to buy the entire game at once and not in chunks.

Online sports games, especially racing, are a natural fit for in-game advertising. Why should all those billboards around the arena/track be fake? Why don't people pay for spots there? There are already organised racing leagues based on car simms, all someone needs to do is offer the client for free, set up a spectator system to get more people in (or watching the replays over and over), and start selling all the advertising space.

It is a simple and real-world proven marketing system. If it works in the real world, why not in a simm?

David...

I agree David. I am a huge motorsports fan, and I own games from NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, which i bought brand new for 40-50 bucks 5 years ago, and now is worth well over $100 still, to NASCAR 08 on PS3, and from the cars itself, to the billboards to the walls and the infield grass area..there are real sponsorships that the game makers pay money to use the Rights to place them into the game for realism, except for Tobacco and Alcohol sponsorships. There are people out there who take Sim Racing seriously. There are many different kinds of Sim Racing Leagues out there, with their own sponsorships to pay to have a server to hold about 30-40 people to race at once, with minimal lag. You can tell which servers are the well funded ones, and which are not.

We bought my son an EA Battlefield game for the PC, but once we opened it, we were warned that there was additional advertising software bundled with the game. EA claimed no responsibility for how the adware operated.

That doesn't sound like EA is very reliable in this area.

Also, the Battlefield game says you must be 14 years of age to play, but I question how old you need to be in order to judge whether to load adware on the family computer or not.

There is a nagging question of gaming violence in the industry, but EA seems to be using kids to open the backdoor on family computers.

Well, this is probably going to kill the game. I also think EA is coming into the 'free game' era just a little to late. This will not bode to well. Already, their are two big online sport games that are free; Free Style Street Basketball Online, and Kicks (An online soccer game) which seem to be managing very well. EA's Battlefield going free swing is also going to cause a stir, but having some dear and almighty competition, as there are MANY free online WW games, and combat sims. I really think EA shoul;d just stick with the regiment their with, and 'going free' is more of an independent move then mainstream, which is what EA is. Stop trying to 'do the right thing', because 8.7 out of 10 times; it's wrong!

What about xboxlive?

What about xBox live? ...?

What would be the point of putting Battlefield on Xbox live for free? Xbox wouldn't make any moolah from it, which seems to be Xbox Lives motives. I just don't se that happening anytime soon.

...Jason, that is how a business works.

I could see it coming from another company, but from EA, hell no. They make you pay for everything. Not to mention I have not seen a single free game on the PC produced by EA. If you can, please direct me, and not mention most of their Online implied games are done through subscriptions. If they were smart they would stay with what they are doing.