EA Does it Again, Season Ticket

[BreakABone]

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:

Known as EA Sports Season Ticket, the subscription program costs $24.99 (2000 Microsoft Points) per year and entitles you to the following: three days of early access to play certain EA Sports games, a 20% discount on DLC, free "premium web content," and recognition of your membership both in-game and on the EA Sports website.

I like this quote

It's worth noting that, while the 20% discount sounds like a lot, to make up for the $25 spent on the Season Ticket itself, you'd need to buy $125 on DLC over the course of one year just to break even.

[magus113]

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.

[KillerGremlin]

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

[manasecret]

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

[Professor S]

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.

[gekko]

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

[Typhoid]

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.

[Vampyr]

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.

[magus113]

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.

[KillerGremlin]

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.

It's worth noting that, while the 20% discount sounds like a lot, to make up for the $25 spent on the Season Ticket itself, you'd need to buy $125 on DLC over the course of one year just to break even.

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

[KillerGremlin]

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.

[Professor S]

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

[KillerGremlin]

Originally Posted by Professor S

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

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.

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).

owners of goods and providers of services should be allowed to create a profit if they can

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... 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.