A whole new drivable area has been part of the plan at developer Criterion for their Burnout: Paradise racing game, set in the wide open Paradise City. A new island to be tacked onto the far end of a closed bridge has been billed as one of the upcoming free downloads. On Friday, Criterion announced on their blog that Big Surf Island, as it's now called, would no longer be free.

We'd mentioned in a previous podcast that this would be free content, but we can now confirm that it will be premium paid-for content.

Here's why.

Ah, this should be interesting. Let's see what they have to say about why it's no longer free.

We never expected to create anything this ambitious for the island, but as it progressed we got more and more excited about what it could become. (In fact, that's the story of all our Downloadable Content.)

Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience - the highlight of a year of incredible premium content. Burnout already delivers incredible value for money - literally hundreds of hours of gameplay with your original disk or PSN purchase, plus more with the free Cagney Pack and free Burnout Paradise Bikes.

We want Burnout Paradise players to experience the greatest support ever seen in a console game. We're transforming not just Burnout Paradise, but the whole Burnout franchise through DLC, and we appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content. We think it's worth it.

As near as I can parse all that stuff about how they're excited and there's already plenty to do in the game as is, plus they've already given us free stuff, it seems the reason they're giving for charging money is because they know we'll pay. "We appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content"?

I can't tell whether that comment is ballsy or just honest. Yeah, I appreciate it when people give me money, too. That doesn't mean I charge for things I've said would be free. I'm going to try that next time my friends come over. I will ask if they'd like a complimentary beer. When they say "yes, please", I'll then tell them that I appreciate the support they give me for stuff I sell them. Then I'll ask them for five bucks. I'll get back to you about how that works out.

Meanwhile, there's no sign of an option to make Burnout Paradise more friendly for casual players who want to occasionally unlock a race or two. Instead, we're still expected to drive fruitlessly to and fro across Paradise City, longing for the days when there was an awesome crash mode with a fully controllable replay camera instead of a deserted sterile city with bridge-shaped cash registers.