Battlefield 6

Agree with you bro. . .

As a person who preferred the Premium pass, (mainly to have a more regular content flow without getting drip fed) I have to admit you're a little misguided on this one:

"No split player base. Everyone had access to the same maps and modes. That kept the community together, instead of fragmenting it based on who bought what."

Having the seasons/battlepass (as much as I truly do not like them/their idea) they never locked a weapon or map out for not paying for the premium battle pass (as they were all in the baseline upgrade path), or I believe the weapons became available after the season via normal unlock means (I honestly don't know as I always had everything unlocked by the end of each season). Skins ,obviously, are a different story, but those don't affect gameplay like maps/modes/weapons.

The biggest issue with premium is that it _did_ split the playerbase based on who paid for premium and who didn't (or who bought individual DLCs and not others). It also locked weapons and maps behind those particular DLCs and such, so it caused quite a bit of consternation for server hosts that largely ended up running the baseline maps because otherwise they'd cut down their player counts when maps changed (if it allowed the player to join the server at all if they weren't entitled to the full map rotation).

Anobix​

I never once struggled to find a good game on dlc maps on bf3 and bf4 and by the time player numbers started dropping off premium was dirt cheap.

I never struggled that much either, to be clear, my point was more that earlier on it became somewhat split, and then having some friends that could/couldn't afford premium would split which matches they were able to play (and thus limited the total number of servers that could offer a full map rotation, etc). Later on when it would go on crazy sale that would be great, but it was frustrating for some (granted, in some cases our friend group would just buy it for the one or two odd-men-out, but that can't be done always)

Totally fair points, and I appreciate the clarification — you're right in that modern seasonal models like the battle pass don't hard-lock players out of maps or modes the way old-school DLCs used to. And yes, weapons typically do become available through gameplay later on even if you didn't get them during the active season.

That said, I’d argue that while premium did split the player base based on who paid, the seasonal model also creates a different kind of fragmentation — not necessarily technical, but progressional and psychological.

Take Battlefield 2042 as a concrete example:

Certain weapons were locked behind seasonal battle pass tiers, and if you didn’t complete those tiers in time, you had to grind them later — which could be a frustrating experience if you missed the season entirely.

There were also XP boosters and other progression-affecting items exclusive to the paid track — not game-breaking, but still a tangible advantage for those who paid.

The constant pressure to “keep up” every season meant that many players ended up feeling like they had to buy each pass just to stay current, whereas with Premium you paid once and were set for the year.

So even if the technical access isn’t restricted, the experience still ends up split between those who keep up every season and those who don’t — especially for returning players or those who can’t commit to the seasonal grind every time.

Not saying one model is perfect — just that both had/have real tradeoffs. The Premium model had a higher upfront cost but offered full access and less FOMO. The seasonal model lowers the barrier to entry but introduces time pressure and gated progression. Depends on what pain points bother you more, I guess.

Gamers now days have been conditioned to expect a constant stream of participation rewards, they don't care if a games good or fun as long as they get a constant stream of shiny things.

They would bemoan the lack of regular rewards that premium brings, with no shiny to chase they would be all over the Internet saying the game is dead due to lack of content despite the content of the game been the actual gameplay.

It’s pretty simple. The Premium model requires EA to commit themselves to actually providing the content, upfront, no backtracking if things don’t work out.

The live service model gives them the freedom to do as they please, no upfront commitment to anything. If they decide to pull the plug early (hello BFV), they can without any real consequences.

So as a business, which would you choose? 👀

And let’s not be so naive claiming that they have the gamers’ best interest at heart 😅

Based on the crap they call BF 2042 there is no way possible this new BF will be any good. Nothing that EA has put out in the last couple of years has worked right at release. Then we wait months and dozens of so called fix it updates that do nothing but either make it worse or no change. This company is all talk and couldn't create a working game ever. This company will sacrifice quality for profit everytime. This company should be under investigation for fraud.