EA continues pre-owned assault

Following the model laid down by Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network, EA has confirmed that the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will also penalise those who buy it second hand.

Anyone who buys a new copy of the title will find inside a code that can be used to access an online hub providing free DLC that significantly boosts the game’s single and multiplayer offer.

Those who buy it pre-owned, however, will have to spend around $15 to buy a new code from EA or else face playing it sans the features enjoyed by others.

We want people to insert the code they get when they buy the game to get access to DLC content,” producer Patrick Bach explained to MTV.

It’s connected to your personal account, more or less, and what we want to do is give you something extra, added value, for that. In the future you will get more content, for free, if you have this VIP code.”

Much like BioWare, the exact rewards for joining the network – or conversely, the punishments for shunning it – have not yet been revealed. Only these details will prove whether that pre-owned punishment will truly be too much for consumers to bear.