DICE prefers ‘bigger, themed’ Battlefield 3 expansions

Coming off of DICE's recent announcement at GDC where they revealed not one, not two, but three upcoming add-ons for Battlefield 3, general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson spoke of why it has taken so long for the company to release new expansions for the game.

Believe it or not, there is actually a good reason for the delay of DLC which, in this day and age of gaming, is practically unheard of.  You've got Activision dropping Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC every month.  Meanwhile, aside from the release of the game's first expansion, Back to Karkand, we haven't heard much about BF3 add-ons.

"The reason that we haven't followed up with even more content more quickly, there's a couple of practical reasons," Troedsson told Joystiq. "Part of that is that we just need to spend a lot of focus getting the game out. The ambition was to get more packs out earlier, but sometimes you have to prioritize between the base product and what you're doing afterwards."

"If you prefer to have smaller piecemeal packs every now and then, you can go with that," Troedsson said, obviously referring to Modern Warfare 3. "We prefer to do something bigger that has a specific theme, that has maps, weapons, assignments, persistent upgrades, all this kinda stuff."

Troedsson admitted his studio could've released content earlier, but admitted, "Sometimes we have limitations to what we can and can't do."

It looks like they've cleared those limitations as they just announced Battlefield 3's upcoming DLC add-ons.

Close Quarters will be the first to arrive in June, followed by Armored Kill and End Game.

The names pretty much suggest the theme of each pack.  Close Quarters is "a themed expansion pack bringing the team play of Battlefield 3 to tight indoor environments.  The frantic close quarters infantry combat is amplified by unprecedented high definition destruction, new ways to play, more weapons and added persistence."

Armored Kill is expected to follow up with all-out vehicle warfare with new tanks, ATV's, and mobile artillery on what will be the largest map ever seen in a Battlefield game.  No release date was announced yet.

The last DLC will be End Game which will arrive in the Winter.  No details on this have been revealed yet.

Perhaps we should praise DICE for putting so much effort and thought into their DLC add-ons.