DICE has announced a new feature coming to Battlefield 1, allowing Premium Pass owners to take their non-premium party members into DLC maps. The developer has coined the feature Premium Friends, serving as an excellent opportunity for regular edition players to try out the new maps that released earlier this month as a part of Battlefield 1"s first DLC, They Shall Not Pass.
When it rolls out, a party member that owns the Premium Pass will elevate the party to "Premium Enabled" status, essentially granting the entire group access to every map in the game. However, it does come with some restrictions for the non-premium players, which the developer has listed:
In a “Premium Enabled” party, only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will earn XP from the maps exclusive to that expansion. We will save the XP for everyone else and grant them retroactively if they decide to get the Battlefield 1 Premium Pass for themselves.
Only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will be able to spawn in with weapons and vehicles unique for the expansion.
Only owners of a Battlefield 1 Premium Pass or the specific expansion pack will track progress towards the unique medals and codexes for the expansion.
Even with these limitations, the feature is a great step towards reducing the player base split between the regular and DLC owners of the game, an ongoing issue with the Battlefield series. It looks like DICE is finally looking to tackle the problem, as the developer will be testing the new Premium Friends feature during its Battlefest event on March 30. As a side note, this year also happens to be the firm"s 25th anniversary.
Battlefield 1 image: Battlefield