EA moves to digital distribution

ELECTRONIC ARTS has announced that its upcoming expansion to Battlefield 2 will be available via its new digital distribution system, much like Valve's Steam system.

Battlefield 2: Special Forces is currently available for pre-loading. The expansion will be made playable for people who have preloaded on the day of release, November 22nd. Chip Lange, EA's vice president of online marketing said, "Digital distribution will keep content flowing to players, keeping their current EA games fresh and delivering new EA games quickly and conveniently." The next expansion to the Sims 2 (Holiday Party Pack) will also be made available for preloading.

Unfortunately for EA, many fans aren't as happy with the content download system as hoped. Though the service is currently up and down intermittently, it look as though the preloaded and boxed retail versions of the game will be at the same price. Considering the fact that preloading currently offers no bonus, fans have no reason not to simply buy a boxed copy on day of release and have a hard copy of the game.

The move into digital distribution is something that many people have considered inevitable. Digital distribution's comparatively low cost means that more money goes directly to developers, and users are often encouraged to buy digitally solely for this reason. In this case, EA is a games giant already and without offering extra content or a lower price it will be a hard sell to hard core gamers. µ