I think because online games as such can't be played on consoles. As I said Bad Company is not a pure online game like 2142 or BF2. Its actually a single player but I think I read some where that they are planning to make a max. 24 players online feature too.
but its definetly not like BF2 that you start as a private & gather points, get ranks and move yourself up. If you watch the trailer you will get the picture pretty well.

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