EA gives PS3 Battlefield 3 owners Battlefield 1943

By Robert Purchese Published 24 November, 2011

"There have been some misunderstandings."

This Saturday (26th November), European PS3 owners of Battlefield 3 can finally claim a free full-game voucher for Battlefield 1943.

US owners of BF3 on PS3 will be able to do the same on 10th December; and Asian and Japanese owners on 17th December.

EA faced a class action lawsuit last week for sneakily breaking its promise of a free Battlefield 1943 game for buyers of Battlefield 3 PS3.

The EA website detailing how to claim a BF1943 code said "there have been some misunderstandings" about the deal.

To claim your Battlefield 1943 code, do as follows:

  1. Activate your Battlefield 3 Online Pass for the PlayStation 3 using the voucher included in the game (see step #5 for additional instructions).
  2. Visit 1943redemption.battlefield.com on or after the dates outlined above for your region and log in with your Origin ID and password. Click here if you need help with retrieving your account information.
  3. Select your territory. Note vouchers do not work across regions.
  4. You will then receive a PlayStation 3 voucher for Battlefield 1943.
  5. input your voucher into the PlayStation Network store. Instructions below.
  • From the XMB (cross media-bar) of the PlayStation 3 connected to a network, choose [account management] under the [PlayStation Network].
  • From the menu select redeem codes.
  • Enter voucher and select continue.
  • Download Battlefield 1943.

Battlefield 1943.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #1 3 months ago

    Cool, Is there a time limit on this or is this for anyone that every gets the online pass?

  • jstar #2 3 months ago

    Why on earth would anyone with BF3 want BF1943...

  • carlitoswagon #3 3 months ago

    Love 1943, a very solid game which is just plain fun to play.

  • wizlon #4 3 months ago

    "There have been some misunderstandings." - Yes, they misunderstood their customers ability to kick up a stink when they feel ripped off. Learn your lessons EA.

  • f0nZ #5 3 months ago

    So, PSN Store buyers don't get nothing?

  • arcam #6 3 months ago

    Yay people power!

    Shows how class actions can be effective, maybe not surprising that Sony are trying to stop people being able to participate in them.

  • Scatigno #7 3 months ago

    @jstar It's the principle of the matter that EA and Sony promised all PS3 copies of Battlefield would include the game and they never made good on it. Not only did they not include the game, but they never mentioned they had taken it out right up until launch when it was finally released, and the PS3 owners themselves found that it was nowhere on the disc. Then they tried to cover it up with some nonsense by saying, instead PS3 owners get DLC one week earlier than other platforms, because ye, paying for DLC earlier than everyone else is far better than a free game, and a really good one at that.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/11 @ 10:32

  • myiagros #8 3 months ago

    Sounds like an oportunistic way to "encourage" console users to create an Origin account.
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/11 @ 10:32

  • yuggy #9 3 months ago

    BF 1943 is the only online shooter I can stomach.

  • CaptainKid #10 3 months ago

    And this is why I don't buy EA games.
    Well, one of the reasons anyway.

  • dsmx #11 3 months ago

    What they actually mean is their legal team said there's plenty of evidence out there showing that they did indeed promise ps3 owners they'd get bf1943 with bf3, if it went to court they would lose.

  • customfirmware #12 3 months ago

    Fuck you EA. Im happy this happen. Will teach other publishers not to fuck us over. Anyways going to have ago on this later.

  • jstar #13 3 months ago

    @Scatigno

    I understand all that, and it's about time they made good on a promise they made. However my point is that it is still a pretty... I don't know, lame freeby. What with it being a multiplayer game how many peeps are actually playing it rather than BF3 and MW3?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #14 3 months ago

    @myiagros

    If you've ever played an EA game on PS3 or 360 that has an online component, you will probably find you already have an Origin\EA account, and it will be the same username and passwords as your PSN\Live account.

  • Pinky_Floyd #15 3 months ago

    great!

    Makes up a tiny bit for the truly awful voice comms on the ps3 version of BF3.

  • Ace-Reject #16 3 months ago

    We're actually getting something before America.

  • DDevil #17 3 months ago

    Something tells me Sony is footing the bill for this one. Wasn't it one of their guys that was boasting about the PS3 version having 1943 rather than EA?

  • asphaltcowboy #18 3 months ago

    Er... Rob, where's the quote from?

  • dadrester #19 3 months ago

    I'm really enjoying BF3 online, but when I had the trial of this it seemed just as good, if not even a little better in terms of level design, so I can wholeheartedly see myself playing it. I'd been planning on buying it for a while and then sony made that announcement at E3 and I figured I'd wait, so this is very welcome news.

  • FireMonkey #20 3 months ago

    @asphaltcowboy - It's the very first line of the post that Rob has linked to next to the quote.

  • MaoZedong #21 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:40:08 17-12-2011

  • WickedDeeJ #22 3 months ago

    The really sad thing here is that it takes a lawsuit to get them to just do this. The bait-and-switch was completely unacceptable, especially how EA just attempted to shrug it off. You advertise something, you better deliver.

  • FireMonkey #23 3 months ago

    @WickedDeeJ - It 'may' not have taken a lawsuit to get them to do it. People didn't really give them a chance to respond after the complaints started. This things can take a while to address, but people jumped straight onto a lawsuit.

  • arcam #24 3 months ago

    They did respond to the complaints: There seems to be some confusion around the Battlefield 1943offer and we’d like to clarify. We had originally planned to includeBattlefield 1943 on the disk but decided to replace that offer with new content that PlayStation fans can enjoy.

    So people should have just waited and EA would have changed their tune? Not bloody likely...

  • Eoin #25 3 months ago

    Good.

    I'm not sure what EA were thinking when they casually left the game out, didn't bother telling anyone, and then announced that the ability to pay for stuff a week earlier was the replacement for a free game. Their legal team probably spent a few minutes researching the situation and then informed them that they had zero chance of winning the court case against them.

    Maybe - hopefully - this will discourage such blatant false advertising in future.

  • Syrette #26 3 months ago

    Surely those who wanted to play 1943 have already bought it?

    It's a nice bonus, don't get me wrong. Whether it's nice enough to play over BF3 is another matter entirely.

  • Nihilanth #27 3 months ago

    WWWWHHHYYYYY!?!?! We're getting Wake Island in the Karkand DLC.
    There's f**k all else worth a damn in BF1943 and any BF fans would have picked this up years ago for the M1 Garand in BFBC2

    Aside from the fact that this was offered, then not given, this is a horsesh!t arguement

  • arcam #28 3 months ago

    WWWWHHHYYYYY!?!?!

    Even if not a single person plays their free copy, it's the principle of the matter.

  • Nihilanth #29 3 months ago

    @arcam So how many people received free game codes when they bought BF3? Oh, this was announced via twitter after release? Hardly a legal document worth suing over... Everyone knows it's not official until it hits facebook...
    Edited by 1 at 24/11/11 @ 16:07

  • arcam #30 3 months ago

    @Nihilanth

    wat

  • tictac132 #31 3 months ago

    I already bought 1943 when it came out, but I encourage anyone who hasn't got it to give it a try. Really fun game.

  • ROCK-NYC #32 3 months ago

    Now lets sue them for unfinished games being released and making us have to deal with all this patch nonsense.

  • Okamiwolf #33 3 months ago

    And people made fun of those suing EA. Turns out all the complacent sheep now get a free game out of other people's complaining/hard work. Moral of the story, stand up for your rights when corporations try to screw you, and I don't mean just videogames.

  • Dj_ade_76 #34 3 months ago

    EA: Fuckin rub it up ya. Bunch o money huggin cunts.. Yay!

  • ctankep #35 3 months ago

    #Occupy Wake Island!

  • SEVQA #36 3 months ago

    @EUROGAMER

    Why do you not ban this cretin /\, all posts are spam!