Battlefield has always been a series with competition. If it wasn’t struggling to win over Call of Duty fans, it was trying to woo people away from Halo , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Ghost Recon . Even EA’s Medal of Honor could be seen as a potential threat. Which is why EA’s latest campaign to call attention to Battlefield is brilliant. It’s called Road to Battlefield and it intermittently awards free DLC.
Here’s how it works. During each period, an add-on for Battlefield 4 and Battlefield: Hardline will be given away for all platforms. You visit the website, claim it, and then it’s yours forever. Battlefield 4’ s Dragon’s Teeth and Battlefield: Hardline’ s Robbery are first and available until May 10. You grab it and you’re set.
Which is brilliant, because then what are you going to do? You’re going to redeem the DLC code and start playing the games again. You’ll get immersed in the experience again. You start noticing these two entries’ nuances. Maybe you even discover elements you didn’t appreciate before. It’s a reason to go back to the two games right before the next Battlefield is announced.
And keep going back, which is even more brilliant. The free DLC is being doled out via the website on a regular basis, to keep you thinking about Battlefield . You’ll see a notification, remember you need to get the next add-on, and keep going back. The game will always be on your mind. And you’ll always be going back to redeem those codes and test out the new content EA gave you.
It makes Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare promotion pale in comparison. What is it doing for that again? Oh, right, it’s showing all the different bundles you can buy. You can get standard Infinite Space , a $20 more Legacy Edition with Infinite Space and Modern Warfare Remastered , and a $60 more Legacy Pro Edition with the games and DLC. Not that Call of Duty isn’t great, it’s just that EA is doing a better job gradually building hype than Activision is.
Which is going to pay off for EA. We love getting free stuff. Especially when we also don’t realize said freebies are constantly getting us to think about and play the Battlefield games. This, in turn, prepares us for the next Battlefield. We’ll be pulled into a vicious cycle, but it’s okay since we’re getting something great out of it.