http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/11/ea-sports-to-charge-used-game-buyers-10-to-unlock-basic-online/

5/11/2010 1:29:34 PM

I read about this last night, and on first impression I thought it was a bad idea. But then as I thought about it more, EA has been coming through with great titles and even threatening existing crown holders, like MW2 with BC2 and Tony Hawk with Skate. EA has established an extremely large presence in my gaming habits, even I have Scrabble on my iPod which was made by EA. I would say they are being aggressive as they can get with trying to sell brand new copies of their games, but they are pushing it however. Even off-beat games like The Saboteur have a great following (I own this title as well). Not to even mention Medal of Honor is going to be the next EA game to hit a homerun. I would say kudos to EA despite this.

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 1:44 PM. Reason : /]

5/11/2010 1:44:13 PM

This was bound to happen eventually. The publishers are going to find ways to push back against the used game market. They may be the first to do this, but they certainly won't be the last. Plus, they were probably tired of Activision getting all the "evil empire of games" press

5/11/2010 1:45:34 PM

I don't think this is evil giving the fact that its only $10 to buy an online pass if you buy it used which is not a lot, say if you buy the game used for 30 bucks for example. Also they most likely will give away addition content, and they have a recent history of doing so.

5/11/2010 1:47:45 PM

i dont play online anyway

so i dont give a DAYUM

call me when they start chargin 10 bucks to plug a second controller into the console

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 4:12 PM. Reason : v]

5/11/2010 4:11:47 PM

Quote :

"call me when they start chargin 10 bucks to plug a second controller into the console"

Take that back! We don't need to be giving them any more bright ideas!


lol

5/11/2010 4:15:36 PM

dblepost

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 4:15 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2010 4:15:36 PM

EA is just the first of many companies who will do this

but yeah I just recently got NCAA Football 2010 through Gamefly...I went to their website and created a team to play with...then went to download it from my console...and its like "hey guy you must spend 800 XBL points to buy slots for downloaded teams" and i was like yeah, om no

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 4:17 PM. Reason : .]

5/11/2010 4:16:28 PM

You guys are thinking too small. Eventually any used game you purchase or rent will only be playable for X amount of time. After which, you'll have to pay the publisher some amount of money in order to "unlock" it for further play. This is just the start of an all out war between the major publishers and Gamestop. In other words, shit just got real.

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : :]

5/11/2010 4:20:50 PM

I hate gamestop beacuse they will buy your shit for $3 and sell it to some poor sap for $40

5/11/2010 4:29:30 PM

That's no reason to hate Gamestop

5/11/2010 4:31:42 PM

Well it isn't just Gamestop they are trying to compete with, it's all the individual places that buy/sell/trade games and things like gamefly. I don't really like Gamestop too much either but you I would take their side in this matter...once you buy a game it is your property... what you choose to do with it is your choice.

5/11/2010 4:33:08 PM

Quote :

"You guys are thinking too small. Eventually any used game you purchase or rent will only be playable for X amount of time. After which, you'll have to pay the publisher some amount of money in order to "unlock" it for further play. This is just the start of an all out war between the major publishers and Gamestop. In other words, shit just got real."

Yeah I can see this getting out of hand quickly. I hardly buy any game "new" now just b/c prices can be outrageous. But for them to control resales/used games will be a monster hit to many gamers, especially families that buy the games for their kids.


III

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 4:34 PM. Reason : k]

5/11/2010 4:34:03 PM

Quote :

"I hate gamestop beacuse they will buy your shit for $3 and sell it to some poor sap for $40 "

I don't see why a consumer would hate gamestop. They're providing a service to people who play video games and making a profit from it. What's to hate? If you don't think they're giving you a fair deal just don't use them and buy/sell your used games independently.

I think the only reason you can dislike them is because their existence is "forcing" game developers to screw you, the consumer, in order to keep their profits up.

5/11/2010 5:30:53 PM

Quote :

"I don't see why a consumer would hate gamestop. They're providing a service to people who play video games and making a profit from it. What's to hate? If you don't think they're giving you a fair deal just don't use them and buy/sell your used games independently."

Which is why I don't trade games in there anymore.

Also, my pre-order experience with them has been terrible.

Another reason, before digital download became mainstream for PC games, they all but killed their PC game section.

5/11/2010 5:37:06 PM

Quote :

"But then as I thought about it more, EA has been coming through with great titles and even threatening existing crown holders..."

Still not a fan. I realize sports is an entity unto itself, not the same as action games, but EA's strategy there is to win the business, starve the competition away, then rest on their laurels and do nothing.

Tiger Woods golf hasn't done anything in 6 years or more.
Madden?
NCAA College Football? I don't own a next gen console, but from what I hear the last NCAA to come out for the previous gen systems is still far more feature rich than the latest NCAA they cranked out. How many years have they had to get that right.

At least they can't buy exclusive rights to skateboards and nazis, otherwise we'd all be screwed.

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 7:32 PM. Reason : -]

5/11/2010 7:31:22 PM

This will just drop the price of used games because demand won't be as high as it once was. This is a positive for those who don't play online as they will be able to get used games at a cheaper price.

5/11/2010 7:55:17 PM

just to be clear, you dote on everything apple but think that EA's product pricing sucks?

i support EA 100% in this. fuck gamestop

5/11/2010 8:08:43 PM

EA does a lot of despicable shit, but I don't see a problem with this.
the only people it hurts is gamestop (who are a bunch of greasy douchebags themselves) who will have to sell used madden at an 180% profit instead of 200%. boo fucking hoo.

[Edited on May 11, 2010 at 8:12 PM. Reason : ]

5/11/2010 8:11:55 PM

it's funny that you don't think that cost will be passed down to you.

5/11/2010 9:20:49 PM

so you're saying that they're going to raise prices on other things? so less people will buy those games as well. it's not like they control the retail pricing. they have a finite range of prices they can charge.

5/11/2010 10:12:43 PM

[Assuming a up to date, higher level online gamer. Not "expert", but someone who will go and buy the new Halo Reach within its first week of release]

I don't really see this being an issue. If you buy a game used in the first place, its been around long enough for the market to lose enough popularity to warrant someone getting bored and selling it.

If its at that point, likely the game has been surpassed with the new "online game of the month" (ala going from MW2 to Halo Reach) and the online community has dropped significantly.

Therefore, the used buyer is likely not going to purchase it for the online part of the game, but rather the novelty of having the game for its single player, or at best split screen multiplayer. AKA, a person buying a used game that has an extensive online community is not buying it for the (online) multiplayer.

Sure, this change will impact heavy hitters like very popular FPS and sports games, but those rotate frequently enough that a addict gamer is going to have the latest and greatest there is. I, for one, have MW2 and will have Halo Reach, and play them online. Bought them asap. For my sports fix, I have what, NCAA Football 2007 that came bundled with my used 360? And I never play that online. Hell, I never play it.

This might hurt casual gamers who play a video game once a month, but higher end gamers probably won't see too much of this. The only game type I can really think of that this would impact is an indepth single player (game that doesn't depend on the online community), such as Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock, that has downloadable content...content which is definitely not necessary to get the full enjoyment of the game.

I could be wrong, but I just don't see little Timmy going to the store to pick up his used Halo 3 when Reach is out.

5/11/2010 10:12:55 PM

Almost every game i own i play solely online and pretty much purchase with that intention. Halo, Madden, MW2, Tiger, Fifa, GTA, etc. I start to play the solo missions and just end up back online.

5/11/2010 11:51:22 PM

EA has its problems, and there's a lot of them, and most don't even have anything to do with behavior like the OP, and even then, the company itself is finally catching on and giving more freedom to the better development studios that work under them. EA isn't quite as much of an evil empire that they used to be.

EA Sports, on the other hand, is just notoriously bad and almost always has been. They virtually never do anything right in any area. They make the rest of EA look a lot worse.

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 3:36 AM. Reason : .]

5/12/2010 3:35:51 AM

this is the writers strike all over again when they weren't getting paid for web content

5/12/2010 4:10:16 AM

^^good point

5/12/2010 11:49:51 AM

Quote :

"I don't really see this being an issue. If you buy a game used in the first place, its been around long enough for the market to lose enough popularity to warrant someone getting bored and selling it. If its at that point, likely the game has been surpassed with the new "online game of the month" (ala going from MW2 to Halo Reach) and the online community has dropped significantly. "

This isn't really that true at all. I played Halo3 from rental for a while from one of the netflix style rental places. This may have affected me. About 6-12 months later I went back and purchased it used to play with friends. The community was still huge (and still is) and I'd have been hit. This is going to be true for most GoW, Halo, MW types of games that have a pretty long shelf life and will likely have a large resale market from ppl who 1) actually do play just single player and 2) just didn't like it all that much but bought it for hype.

Sports games have obvious rotations, but if you want to play an old version 1-2 back with friends (I played FIFA 08 up until about a month before 2010 came out), you get hit. 10 bucks would have nearly doubled the price of the game.

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 1:16 PM. Reason : i dont think this is an aweful idea, but it has pretty big impact]

5/12/2010 1:15:37 PM

I think they could off-set this in the sports game arena by offering people who bought brand new copies of the previous year's game a discount. EA is subject to do something like this. They, EA, really seem to be trying to give the customer a good bang for the buck here lately, whether people disagree with on this or not, and I think their incentives to buy brand new games so they can keep pumping out good game, yes I said good games, will work. Dead Space, The Sims - just to name a few more good EA games - and no one can deny that EA has the sports (including boxing, soccer, golf, etc.) arena on lock, despite the fact that he has the NFL exclusive license for now; sure their sports title from year to year don't change much or really add anything worth while most of the time, but they still are good games. Overall, I am willing to support a company that pumps out good games, and in addition to this, for me and I would suspect majority of people, this new thing will not have too much of an affect on my gaming habits, if any at all.

5/12/2010 1:32:54 PM

four things will happen due to this.

1) the price of used games will go down (if you don't buy the ea addon for your used games). there is a theoretical limit to what a person will pay for a used game, most of the $10 will end up being priced out of the price of used games

2) the resale value of used games will go down. this is obviously due to point 1.

3) this will most hurt the game trading market as now games you get in the mail won't be free but require a $10 fee to play online

4) EA will make shittons of profit from this venture

5/12/2010 8:27:07 PM

This is just sports games - for now and maybe only sports games in the future - and most people that I know that play sports games buy them brand new anyway. Sports games have poor trade in value anyway, unless you trade them in within a month of their release date.

5/12/2010 9:02:26 PM

EA has been a piece of shit company ever since they killed Motor City Online.

5/12/2010 9:33:20 PM

now try renting a game to play online

5/12/2010 9:41:05 PM

THQ and Ubisoft have all joined EA and are going to begin charging for online content.

THQ begins with UFC 10 needing a 1-time code to play online

5/20/2010 3:06:17 PM