fter the launch of the Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer beta this week, there are reports popping up all over the Internet about a little secret EA has been keeping. Xbox 360 Fanboy is report that beta testers are saying that the publisher is locking out some of the in-game weapons and saying that they’re available for purchase as premium content on Xbox Live Marketplace. Ten in all have been reported to be locked out, and five of them supposedly come unlocked in the gold edition.

This is not the first time EA has done this kind of thing. The last few Need for Speed games have had what looks like pretty extensive DLC (downloadable content) but in actuality, the content was already on the disc and consumers had to pay to unlock it. As we’ve stated before, using DLC like this is totally unfair to the consumer. Its one thing to have a free-to-play game that charges for premium content, but it’s another to pay for a game and have to pay more to access everything.