Double victory all the way! After publishers THQ and Electronic Arts promised PlayStation 3 exclusive bonuses for Saints Row: The Third and Battlefield 3 at Sony's E3 2011 press conference this summer, both came up short upon release of their titles and we were left with broken promises.

Saints Row: The Third was supposed to come with a bonus mode and EA was supposed to package Battlefield 1943 in with Battlefield 3, but in both cases, this didn't happen. Upon release, THQ was quick to offer up Saints Row 2 to PS3 buyers of its sequel to make up for it, but in the case of Battlefield, EA kept silent, only announcing via Twitter that players wouldn't be getting Battlefield 1943.

No explanation was given and to make up for PS3 players not getting Battlefield 1943, they would instead get early access to the first Battlefield 3 DLC by one week. No free bonus, just a week early of play. For those who don't plan to play 1943 it wasn't really a big deal, but by itself, it very much is. A publisher came out and promised an exclusive offer which can affect the buying decision of gamers, and then didn't honor it.

That was grounds for a lawsuit voiced some of our readers and lawyers agreed. Law firm Edelson McGuire filed a class-action lawsuit against EA for misleading consumers with the goal of getting the publisher to get Battlefield 1943 in the hands of consumers who were promised it.

It's been a month since the release of Battlefield 3 and now EA has finally come around. As a result of fan uproar and the legal proceedings, they are finally going to give Battlefield 1943 to PS3 buyers of BF3. This is what they've posted on their official site:

"There have been some misunderstandings around Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield 3. To address this we are making Battlefield 1943 available free of charge to owners of Battlefield 3 on the PS3 beginning this month."

Yes, there have been some misunderstandings. We understood that Battlefield 1943 would come with the PS3 edition Battlefield 3 because that's what was officially announced... and it didn't.

The official announcement from EA and download instructions can be found here and they'll roll out for all regions over the next few weeks - we've included the info below:

  • November 26th, 2011 for Sony Europe.
  • December 10th, 2011 for Sony America.
  • December 17th, 2011 for Sony Asia and Sony Japan.

To download your copy of Battlefield 1943 for the PlayStation 3 please follow the easy steps below.

  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.
    1. From the XMB (cross media-bar) of the PlayStation 3 connected to a network, choose [account management] under the [PlayStation Network].
    2. From the menu select redeem codes.
    3. Enter voucher and select continue.
    4. Download Battlefield 1943.

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Source: EA