<i>Battlefield 3</i> fans locked out of beta early access take concerns to Electronic Arts

By Adam Rosenberg September 29, 2011

Battlefield 3 AIR-SUPERIORITY — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Trouble’s a-brewin’ for Electronic Arts. The Battlefield 3 public beta launches today for one and all, following two days of early access availability to those who pre-ordered the game through EA’s Origin store or purchased their Medal of Honor Limited Edition last year (which essentially meant buying the game new right around its launch).

That was the plan, anyway. It seems that things did not proceed as some fans had hoped. The beta keys were sent out as promised, but some portion of those codes were never sent for reasons that aren’t clear at this time. What is clear is that fans are pretty pissed. Destructoid spotted one thread on the publisher’s forums containing a transcript from a customer service chat related to the issue. According to the EA rep, this disgruntled fan’s region wasn’t eligible for early access, despite his/her claims of having friends up and running already.

Another thread is straight-up collecting names of fans that didn’t receive their codes. It’s now 18 pages long. The real kicker is that the early access phase of the beta is over, so anyone who was expecting to get advance time with the beta is already out of luck.

Personally, I have at least one friend here in New York City who got Medal of Honor, largely for the beta code, and then didn’t get that code. He is not pleased, and I’m sure that’s true for anyone who got shafted. There’s been no official response from the publisher as of this writing, though I continue to wait for one.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

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