Battlefield 1943 Puts Players to Work for Fourth Map

In order to unlock the fourth map in Battlefield 1943, players will have to rack up 43 million kills over Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

So you say you want your fourth map in Battlefield 1943? Well, maps don’t come easy in this world – you need to earn them, with the blood, sweat and tears of your opponents. Only after 43 million kills have been achieved on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network will the “Coral Sea” map be unlocked.

Coral Sea features an “all-new Air superiority game mode” that will have players competing for airborne supremacy in intense dogfights. The other three maps, Iwo Jima, Gaudalcanal and Wake Island, come as part of the default Battlefield 1943 package, while Coral Sea is dubbed a “fourth bonus map.”

This is what EA and DICE are calling a “community challenge,” but I’d call it a “entice people to keep playing your game before they can get their money’s worth” challenge. I suppose it’s no different in principle from Noby Noby Boy‘s forcing people to play to unlock new planets, but there’s a difference between a game where you stretch a snake-boy-thing and poop and Battlefield.

So, only three maps and one that’s going to take at least some time to unlock. Seems like a rip off? Well, it’s only $15, so decide for yourself when it comes out this June on 360/PS3 and in September on PC.