EA's Online Lockout

[Bretimus_v2]

I was talking to a friend about this the other day and can I just tell you what a stupid idea this is? I understand where they are coming from, but really? Ted_Wolff recently wrote a wonderful post about developers locking us out of content by not letting us view movies until we got to that point and so forth, but this is completely locking a person out of content if they choose to trade or buy used. I know that EA's stock is dropping, but this is a questionable move.

More later...talk amongst yourselves.

 

[TheDiesel]

From what I've heard, it's only being implemented for the EA Sports games since people will buy the latest version a year later for less than half the price and receive the total game, thus EA losing money. If it's bought New, EA gets a share of the sale and you get the online as usual without worrying about an online pass. If you buy it used and cheap from a retailer, you'll have to spend another $10 on an Online Pass.

To me, this doesn't seem all too bad, it's EA making sure they get their slice of the pie whenever they ship out a new game, and want to lessen the amount of used game sales they have. It's perfectly understandable from a business standpoint, but personally I hope this doesn't become a recurring tactic for other publishers.

 

[De-Ting]

How about we stop releasing sports game every freakin' year, make a really good one, and supply necessary updates to keep it current.

Wait a sec...or we could just be grubs and feast on the feeble minds of people who are compelled to buy the most recent version of anything, and now force them to buy them new, OR ELSE!!!

...World is dumb.

 

[KoalaRainbowPoop]

How about we stop releasing sports game every freakin' year, make a really good one, and supply necessary updates to keep it current.

this is why i don't buy sports games.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

That basically made the decision for me between EA MMA and UFC 2010.

My main problem is that I rarely by a game brand new. On top of that, a lot of the times I borrow games from friends and this would cut off a portion of the play experience. I'm not upset about them doing this to sports games, but I can see this setting a precedent for any online multiplayer games (for instance, EA's Battlefield BC2).

 

[madster111]

So how long until EA gets ass-raped and has to shut down?

Honestly, i can't fucking wait.
I currently play and enjoy a bunch of EA games and-
Oh wait i'm thinking of something.
I currently own NO ea games and don't plan on changing that in the future.

I torrented Spore and then deleted it, just to make sure EA know i didn't buy that shit.

 

[unctarheels]

"EA is oddly blunt when describing why this system has been put into place. "When we see how many people are playing all of our games online, consumers are telling us that competition is endemic to sports in a way that most people don’t get just by playing a game alone on their couch," Andrew Wilson, Senior Vice President of World Wide Development at EA Sports wrote on the FAQ. "As a result, we’ve made a significant investment to offer the most immersive online experience available. We want to reserve EA SPORTS online services for people who pay EA to access them." If you're not buying the game new, you're not paying EA, so you need to cough up some cash to play online."

_________

I don't get it. If EA has any kind of cost for providing the online gameplay, its built into the original 60 dollar retail cost of the game. If it cost them money to continue to provide the online gameplay after that (server maintenance or what have you), they would have a monthly fee for everyone, not just used game buyers. But they don't...they obviously aren't losing money from used-purchase gamers playing online because there is absolutely nothing different from them playing online compared to the online-gamers who bought it new. It's all just a way to push the what-are-you-willing-to-pay-for limit.

It is frustrating because they are right about one thing, certain sports gamers only play for the online gaming. I play FIFA online religiously, and while this won't affect me there because I usually buy each version new, there are plenty of old sports games I have bought used for 10 dollars at gamestop (hockey, college basketball etc) just to play that sport...but I do use the online. However, there is no way I would pay an extra ten dollars for that.

Hopefully this REALLY hurts the used game sales at gamestop to the point that they hop off board, thereby prompting EA to re-think their fee....but I doubt it.