Image: Battlefield 3. EA.

EA recently announced that it will split some important content from its much hyped Battlefield 3 (due out October 25) and use it as a pre-order promotion.

The idea is that pre-ordering the game will get you exclusive DLC, called “Physical Warfare.” This pack includes maps, and importantly, weapons. The maps will be available later in a DLC pack called “Back to Karkland,” special weapons excluded.

That means those who do not pre-order the title will be left forever without weapons potentially vital to online victory. This includes the Type 88 light machine gun with bipod, SKS sniper rifle flash suppressor, armour-piercing flechette ammo for the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun, and the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun itself.

Battlefield 3 has been hyped as a Call of Duty “killer,” which means taking ground in the arena of competitive online play is essential, and leaving players frustrated by imbalanced play due to the availability (or lack thereof) of weapons seems like a serious misstep.

Fans, and potential customers of EA, have declared a boycott. The effort got underway at Reddit less than a day ago, but already over 1500 have comments have been made on the matter. That link will also point you in the direction of some rather important contacts at EA to let your voice be heard.

A poll on the official EA forums asked the dedicated fans over there what they think of the matter, with clear results: 75 people think it’s a good idea, 64 don’t care, and 2184 (94%) think it’s a bad idea.

It would seem EA has a PR nightmare on their hands.