Over the past few months, Microsoft and EA have been giving Battlefield players one heck of a deal across Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC by offering a plethora of free DLC expansions for both Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline. Now, at long last, each and every DLC expansion for Battlefield 4 is free on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and it has fans rejoicing.
"No longer do we have to be divided as a community," writes one happy Reddit user. "All maps are available. All server owners rejoice. If you own BF4 take the time to download all the free DLC this week!"
All five of the game's paid DLC expansions; China Rising, Dragon's Teeth, Naval Strike, Second Assault and Final Stand, are free for all users. Each expansion normally retails for $14.99. Three previously-free expansions, Community Operations, Legacy Operations and Night Operations, are also still free for users.
All in all, that's a ton of free content for players. Better yet, Battlefield 4 itself is available for relatively cheap, and currently retails for $29.99 on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
The free DLC is all part of EA's "Road to Battlefield 1" campaign, in which the publisher is seeking to drum up support for the upcoming new entry in the series by freely giving away DLC content for previous Battlefield games.
It's definitely nice that the Battlefield 4 community can finally all play together. In the age of DLC and season passes, multiplayer games frequently become fragmented into the "haves" and "have nots." Those who have only purchased the base game play together, while those who own all the DLC play separately on newer content. Now, three years later, all Battlefield 4 players can experience everything the game has to offer without having to buy a season pass.
Battlefield 1, however, will continue in the footsteps of its predecessor by offering a season pass and DLC expansions. It's a business strategy that has since been dropped by many other multiplayer shooters, such as Halo 5 and the upcoming Titanfall 2, which instead offer microtransactions in exchange for free updates. Nonetheless, EA has decided to press forward with its season pass plans just as the company did with Star Wars Battlefront, to the sadness of many gamers. Who knows, maybe in another three years all the Battlefield 1 DLC will be free as well.
