Battlefield 4 players are in for a treat this week, as EA and DICE have announced yet another one of the game's DLC packs is going free for all players across all platforms.
The game's China Rising DLC will be free from now until Aug. 9 on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Here's what is included in the DLC pack:
– Four New Multiplayer Maps: Silk Road, Altai Range, Guilin Peaks and Dragon Pass
– New Game Mode: Air Superiority, an aerial dogfighting game type
– New Vehicles: Dirt Bike and Bomber
The free content is just the latest offering as part of EA's "Road to Battlefield 1" campaign, as the publisher looks to drum up support for the next installment in the franchise. Both Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline were a mere $5 apiece a few weeks ago, and numerous free DLC packs have been offered over the last few months.
Battlefield 1 will take the series to World War I for the first time, while still including the large-scale, vehicle- and infantry-based combat fans of the series have come to love. Horses, tanks, gas weapons, bi-planes and zeppelins will all be featured, and so far, it certainly looks like a chaotic good time. However, despite the game's reveal trailer being one of the most-viewed video game trailers of all time (it's currently sitting at 45 million views), EA says it is projecting the game's sales to be slightly under what the franchise typically does in a year.
"Typically a Battlefield does 15 million in a year. Our guidance is slightly under that and we hope that excitement builds and it'll go through that number, but for now it's slightly under that number," EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said during a recent EA earnings report. EA initially rejected DICE's pitch for a Battlefield game set in World War I, as the publisher was afraid younger players would know little about the historical conflict, and that it would result in fewer sales.
Battlefield 1 is scheduled to release on Oct. 21. DICE recently revealed a new interface on Xbox One and PS4 that will allow players to squad up and jump between owned Battlefield games. The feature is coming to Battlefield 4 first, and will launch with Battlefield 1 before then being added to Battlefield Hardline. In other Battlefield news, a TV show based on the franchise is also in the works.
