Back in March, EA announced a new Battlefield 1 feature called Premium Friends that enables everyone in a multiplayer group to play on expansion-exclusive maps as long as at least one person in the group actually owns them. The new Premium Trials feature comes at the problem from a different angle: It will give all players access to a limited selection of expansion maps, for a limited time, regardless of ownership status.
The first Premium Trials event will take place later this month with the release of the new Prise de Tahure map, and will feature Prise de Tahure as well as four other maps from the BF1 expansion They Shall Not Pass. Another Trials event will take place ahead of Gamescom, which runs from August 22-26, and a third is set for September. For at least awhile, players will have the option of choosing between Friends or Trials, as EA also noted that "the current Premium Friends period is still active and will last until Gamescom."
A rollout date for Prise de Tahure, a night map set in 1917 in the Champagne-Ardennes region, hasn't been announced, nor has the length of the individual Premium Trials periods: The fine print at the bottom of the announcement says only that it is a "limited time free trial," and that the "trial time is subject to change." EA also confirmed that the In the Name of the Tsar expansion remains on schedule for September, preceded by an "early taste" in August with the release of the Lupkow Pass map, while the more naval-oriented Turning Tides expansion is coming in December.
