Battlefield 3, Origin, and one screwed up release date

Wait, wait, wait.

Hold on just one second.

Haven’t we been here before?

Yeah, we have. Two years ago, about the same time as now, there was a little screwup with the Australian release of Borderlands on Steam (sorry, no ragetoon graphic this time around).

Today, history repeats itself with a similar kind of screwup on release dates — only now EA is the culprit here, and Battlefield 3 is the game with the muddled release date.

You see, originally Battlefield 3 was slated to be released on the 25th in Australia — today. Then, somewhere in the last two weeks, EA turned around and decided to stagger the release date around the world, meaning that Australia gets Battlefield 3 two days after the original release date. Instead of midnight launches on the 25th, we get midnight launches on the 27th.

Up until about a week or ago, the release date was today. Now, the release date is two days away.

I don’t even know what to think anymore. There has been so much controversy surrounding the release of one of the most anticipated games in recent history. One day they’re all live-action trailers, early-access open betas, and PC-first development, the next, they’re forcing their glorified download client on you, unlocking Battlefield 3 for all the hardcore gamers in countries like Myanmar before the US or Australia, or even sending reviewers console copies of their premier PC title. Perhaps they even have the guts to pull all their premier titles from the number one digital distribution platform on PC (this might be the reason I can’t buy Crysis 2 on Steam).

And after all this, gamers still lap up every second of it. We may not like it, but we assume the position, smile, and take whatever they want to give.

We’re pathetic.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

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