Battlefield Heroes

Did You Know?

• As of 2025, the game is still available to play as a fan restoration.
• An unofficial spiritual successor titled Heroes of Valor began development in 2025.
• Battlefield Heroes was closed on 14 July 2015 alongside Battlefield Play4Free, Need for Speed: World, and FIFA World.

Development

The first phase of the game's release was an invitation-only closed beta beginning on 6 May 2008, limited to professional beta testers. The high traffic from the announcement caused the site to crash briefly; after restoration, it was stated that third-party professional testers would participate and that open beta phases would follow to test server capacity. Closed beta players were under a non-disclosure agreement. On 29 August 2008, hundreds of beta keys were distributed on small cards at the EA booth at the Penny Arcade Expo.

The closed beta ended on 14 November 2008. DICE announced on 31 July 2008 that extra closed-beta keys would be given to the first twenty commenters on new posts on the official Battlefield Heroes website, with the first such post scheduled for 4 August 2008. This caused the server to crash from the volume of users, delaying key distribution. On 6 August, the method changed to require solving a riddle to win a key, though the first twenty comments still received keys that day due to unclear communication.

A second, harder riddle was released on 9 August, available for five minutes; confusion arose over the time zone, as DICE used GMT+1, which was clarified with the third riddle. On 27 August 2008, 400 keys were released, and another 200 on 11 September 2008 were claimed in 22 minutes. On 29 July 2008, the game was announced as delayed to the first four months of 2009, with EA CEO John Riccitiello stating the company would increase focus on social networking features.