Battlefield 3

Coming in North America on September 11 and in Europe on September 13, the Battlefield 3 Premium Edition is the ultimate Battlefield experience! Combining the original Battlefield 3 game, all Battlefield 3 Premium content including five themed digital expansion packs, and a Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Head-Start Kit that is custom-designed to help jump start players who are new to multiplayer by automatically unlocking 15 different weapons, gadgets and vehicle upgrades. Battlefield 3 Premium Edition delivers more than 25 maps, over 70 weapons and vehicles and dozens of unlocks and upgrades, making it the perfect entry point into one of the top shooter games of this generation. At $69.99 it's an unbeatable value compared to purchasing all this great content individually at a cost of well over $100.

Battlefield 2 had official modding tools in place, and the modding community helped to keep the popularity of the game churning for many years after its initial release. However, recent sequel Battlefield 3 came with no official modding tools, causing an uproar from the modding community.

At GDC Europe this week, Karl Magnus Troedsson, general manager at DICE, explained why this is the case -- essentially, DICE is scared of the implications of giving players access to parts of the game's code.

He reasoned that, while the company is very much aware of how important modding can be for building up a game's longevity, "we're afraid of all the things that can come with releasing the code."

Giving players access to certain parts of the code would potentially leave it open to hacking exploits, he said, and this is something that DICE is not comfortable with at all.

Adding to this, he noted that Battlefield 3 is not just a PC release, but also available on console, and that if DICE was to accommodate modding tools, it would want to provide these to console players too, which is rather more tricky.

"If we do mod support, we want to do it really, really well," he reasoned. "We are not ready to do this yet."

Remember back in July 2011, when DICE claimed that Frostbite 2 was too complex and that was the reason why they did not release mod tools for Battlefield 3? Well, they were lying. We knew back then that there was something fishy but our guess back then was that DICE decided to lock Battlefield 3 because the release of those mod tools would ruin their DLC plans. We were partiartly right, as the company has planned BF3′s DLCs long before the game’s launch. However, it seems that there was and another reason that forced DICE to lie when it came to the game’s modding tools.

Karl Magnus Troedsson, general manager at DICE, explained at GDC Europe that DICE was afraid of releasing the mod tools for Battlefield 3 because they were scared of giving players access to parts of the game’s code.

As Gamasutra reported, DICE is very much aware of how important modding can be for building up a game’s longevity, but they’re afraid of all the things that can come with releasing the code. This basically means that the release of mod tools would leave Battlefield 3 open to hacking exploits, and this is something that DICE is not comfortable with at all.

In all honesty, this is a bunch of crap. DICE is simply afraid of ruining its DLC plans and that’s why they are not releasing those anticipated mod tools. It’s really sad, because the team behind BF3 and Bad Company 2 are modders themselves, that made their debut in the gaming industry via the Desert Combat mod. These guys should know how important are mod tools. These guys should be more friendly to the idea of releasing mod tools. These guys should not be lying to us.

Those ‘hacking’ excuses are as bogus as the fact that Frostbite 2 was a really complex engine. DICE can easily tweak its netcode, but then again, Battlefield’s netcode was a mess all this time. In fact, there are already a lot of hackers that have not been punished yet, and let’s not forget that each and every patch brings new glitches to the table.

It’s unfortunate, but DICE lied to all gamers about both mod tools and Battlefield 3′s maps. Remember when they said that they would not charge for maps and that they would not follow Infinity Ward’s example? Well, we all got our answers with Battlefield Premium and the awful Battlelog browser.

Unfortunately, that’s the truth behind those rumored mod tools and why DICE is not releasing them. It’s not about hackers invading Battlefield 3. It’s not about Frostbite 2 being a complex engine. It’s because those mod tools would ruin DICE’s and EA’s business plans. And that’s a fact!