Battlefield 6 hands out free battle passes to some players after EA outage

EA and Battlefield Studios are handing out Battlefield 6 freebies to players affected by outages on the first day of release, which prevented those hit from getting into the action for several hours. Those who purchased BF6 via the EA app were faced with downtime that kept some out of the game altogether, with certain people being told they needed to purchase DLC in order to play. Meanwhile, some Steam users have been met with a confusing warning that Battlefield 6 isn't yet available when trying to download it.

It seems fair to call the day-one launch of Battlefield 6 a success. Along with our rousing Battlefield 6 review hailing it as a "triumphant return," the multiplayer giant has already secured itself a place among Steam's elite, rising to the number three spot on the Valve platform. After the lull that was 2042, BF6 has reclaimed a spot among the best FPS games, and thrown down a serious gauntlet to Call of Duty ahead of the Black Ops 7 release date. Yet it hasn't been completely smooth sailing.

"Today we experienced an outage on the EA app that prevented some of our players who pre-ordered Battlefield 6 from accessing the game," Battlefield Studios writes. "We know this can be frustrating, so we wanted to offer an apology… with perks." It says the fix has already rolled out and you should now be able to play as normal, although not before Respawn head Vince Zampella suggested to affected users on X that they should "refund and buy on Steam," while also saying, "I have yelled about EA app people."

As for those who were met with downtime, Battlefield Studios has a two-part gift. Those who were affected by the outage will receive 12 Hardware Boosters and 12 Career Boosters via the in-game inbox this weekend, which should help you to rank up fast and get your hands on the best Battlefield 6 guns and attachments. Additionally, they'll also get "full access to a seasonal battle pass." If you purchased the Phantom Edition, which comes with the current battle pass included, you'll instead be granted the Season 2 offering.

The team says it is also aware of an ongoing Battlefield 6 'Game not released' Steam warning message being shown to some players when downloading the multiplayer game. It suggests one potential workaround of opening the properties menu via your Steam library, then unticking both the 'Battlefield 6 multiplayer HD marker' and 'Battlefield multiplayer marker' DLC.

"Please let us know if this does not work for you, and we will continue to investigate this situation," it adds. Others have suggested clearing your Steam download cache, or simply restarting the launcher altogether, as possible fixes.

The developer is also "looking into an issue that is preventing some players from receiving their in-game rewards from the Phantom Edition, the open beta rewards, as well as the Road to Battlefield 6 rewards." It says it will provide an update once this has been resolved.

Make sure you have every advantage while playing by using the best Battlefield 6 settings to optimize your PC performance, and then study our rundown of the Battlefield 6 maps so you know what you're going into.

Want to share your thoughts and experiences so far? Come by the PCGamesN community Discord server and give us your best BF6 war tales from the opening weekend.