EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

A new way to get increased revenue without really adding anything of value to the games.

http://www.1up.com/news/ea-sports-se...you-play-early

EA Season Ticket, is a 25/year, "pass" for EA Sports Titles that allows you:

I like this quote

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

Note that early access to the games also means you still need to go out and buy the actual game once that three day window is up as well.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

They need to come up with a new acronym...because DLC does not accurately convey how much consumers are getting fucked in the ass.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

There's gotta be more than that, right? It's so obviously worthless that this sounds like an Onion article for video games.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

While I normally ok with allowing the market to decide pricing, etc. there may be anti-trust issues at play here. EA has a lock-down on the NFL license, and this could be considered gauging because consumers have no other options for NFL licensed games.

This is a stretch, but possible.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

You can vote with your dollar. Don't buy it and they will stop offering it.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

2 bucks a month isn't a big deal. It's only 2 bucks. I'm not saying I'm going to go out and sign up for this - because it doesn't really sound like it offers much other than putting you on a priority list for various things - but for only 2 bucks there will probably be a lot of people who are willing to sign up considering how it compares to the monthly cost of other things. I can see a lot of people having the "It's only 2 bucks, big deal" outlook.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

It's not though, it's a one time payment of $25, which I think people will be a lot more hesitant to spend than if they were to just be able to spend $2 every month to keep the subscription going.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

This is also a membership thing for sports games.

Sports games. Of which they release not that many compared to the other franchises and IPs they put out during the year.

NFL, NCAA Football, Fight Night (if they still make those new), Rugby now I think, Tiger Woods PGA, NCAA March Madness, NHL, and FIFA. Each one once a year. Pretty sure not everybody plays all the sports games either.

My brother plays sports games and he only really likes the NCAA series because he thinks they do a better job than the Madden yearly releases.

So yeah, great job guys.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

I still see the core issue being that they are charging people for content that should otherwise be free. Seriously, fuck everything about this because this is the future of console gaming and online content distribution.

DLC + DRM = the death of gaming.

And my pipe dream was that waggling and shovelware was going to kill gaming. I wish. :banghead:

THIS RIGHT HERE. The mass commercialization of gaming...bleh.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

This is a perfect time to drop my new favorite Cracked article (for the second time):

http://www.cracked.com/article_18817...d-by-b.s..html

By locking down user-created content and charging for bullshit (what the outright fuck do you need to spend 125 dollars on in a Madden game that didn't come in the original game? Can someone explain that to me since I haven't touched that dreaded series since the Nazis/EA bought out exclusive rights....)

DLC is controlled FARTS.

Let's never forget that some of the best games ever made *coughcounterstrikecough* were modded by users. That will never ever happen again when games have DRMed up the ass, locked all content down, and exploited people's money with DLC.

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

KG, while I somewhat empathize, we have to understand that ownership is a real thing and owners of goods and providers of services should be allowed to create a profit if they can.

In free markets, profiteering is a balancing act. How far can a company push revenue generation before they alienate their customer base and they move on to a competitor who costs less or makes a better product or both.

In the end, this system has driven prices down and quality up throughout history

Re: EA Does it Again, Season Ticket
 

I totally agree with you, and I support the free market and EA can do whatever they want...I'm just a passionate drama queen when it comes to gaming. :lol:

My biggest fear would be a future where user generated/modded content is completed locked down. But as Gekko and you both pointed out...people can vote with their dollar, and if companies alienate their consumers they will lose business.

Case in point: Blizzard and Diablo 3 (although it seems to be a 50/50 backlash amongst hardcore gamers).

BTW, I agree with this and I think FARTS are a good/necessary thing...it's just a matter of coming up with "value" that is going to be the issue...:p That's why DLC is shady. There once was a time when DLC/expansion packs were released after the game came out to add additional content that was never thought of or implemented during original development. Now...we see a lot more leaving stuff out intentionally, and then charging more for them later.