EA alters Battlefield Heroes pricing

Changes to the cost of in-game items in EA’s online-only free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes have been met poorly by the title’s community, with claims that it is now almost impossible to compete with rival players without spending real-world cash on the game.

Anyone is able to download the free Battlefield Heroes client and play the game for nothing, but those hoping to seriously compete would normally invest in items such as virtual weapons or perks.

Changes to the cost of items in the DICE game now mean that while the real-money cost of many items has been reduced, the number of Valor Points – the game’s virtual currency which can be earned by playing the game and winning matches – required to buy the same goods has soared.

In addition, the rental period that items can be kept for has been reduced from weeks to days.

The net result, ArsTechnica claims, is that playing your way to richness now requires so much game time so as to make the task virtually impossible.