EA Says Thank You to Battlefield 3 Players

Get ready to level up, soldier! DICE announced that it is thanking fans for their passion and loyalty by hosting a Battlefield 3™ “Says Thanks” Sweepstakes weekend where gamers who play from Friday, November 11th at 12:01am GMT through Sunday, November 13th at 11:59pm GMT will have a chance to win one of three amazing prizes. The Grand Prize is a round-trip visit to DICE in Stockholm, Sweden for one player and three of their squadmates for three nights. Included in the visit is a tour of the state-of-the-art studio and an introduction to the development team behind the award-winning game. The second prize is $5,000 USD in cash, or equivalent local currency, with the third place winner taking home a brand new game system with the full catalogue of corresponding Battlefield games. Complete sweepstakes rules can be found at www.battlefield.com/saysthanks.

The November play sessions will be followed in December with even more fan engagement when Battlefield 3 releases the first digital expansion pack, Back to Karkand. This expansion comes with the Limited Edition of the game and delivers four fully remastered Battlefield maps; Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula, all with enhanced levels of destruction. In addition, this expansion pack includes five new dog tags, five new achievements/trophies, three new vehicles (DPV, BTR-90, F-35B STOVL jet fighter), 10 iconic Battlefield weapons and a new persistence system where players complete assignments to earn their rewards. Back to Karkand will be sold separately for $14.99 or 1200 MS points on the PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Marketplace, respectively. The expansion pack is available now for PC pre-order on Origin.com.

Battlefield 3 has sold through five million units in the first week globally, making it the fastest-selling game in EA’s history. The outstanding retail performance is driven by critic’s reviews averaging above 85 on console and above 90 on PC.* Word-of-mouth from gamers is also driving sales – Battlefield 3 now has more than 2.5 Million “likes” on Facebook. Following the tradition of all games in this storied franchise; Battlefield 3 includes a superior multi-player experience. Consumers have logged-on in unprecedented numbers to team up and join the battle. Server stability was solid in the first weekend, delivering EA’s highest-ever usage rates. While some players experienced intermittent disruption of online services due to high volume, internal estimates show that servers and service uptime stabilized to roughly 98.9% throughout the weekend, ensuring that players were connected and enjoying the game. With a commitment to support the game as a software service, EA is listening to consumer feedback and is making daily updates and improvements to ensure an optimal online experience for all.

As DICE continues to support Battlefield 3 as a software service, the development team has been collecting player feedback, responding to issues and working non-stop to provide improvements to both the single player and multiplayer campaigns. Updates include improved Quickmatch and squad functionality, improved game stability, reduced lag and rubber-banding, and added hardcore servers to meet demand. Details of ongoing updates can be found on the Battlefield blog at http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/.