[Yahoo! Games] How playing Madden online could cost you $10

Slippery slope aside, I don't have a huge problem with this from a developer standpoint. It's a way to cash in on people who had been deciding on getting a game used (aka much cheaper price) which is a sale that the company itself never sees. Gamestop makes a living on this... company doesn't see a dime from the secondary sale.

It sucks for those who buy used games, but well, there's always the option of buying the game new when the price goes down eventually.

It's possible I'm only looking at this from a "the few games I do buy are brand new" standpoint, but I'm fine with the company charging an extra 10 bucks for online play. So long as the offline play remains untouched.

 

That's the thing, this is only the beginning. I've read reports that stated game companies will eventually start holding back key elements of the offline game if you don't pony up an extra fee. This has NOTHING to do with paying for online services (as DD believes) and has EVERYTHING to do with the developers getting a piece of the used game market.

DD makes it sound as if these companies have been getting fleeced all these years when in fact they enjoy hefty profits from their games despite the used market.

 

I was disputing your claim that the purpose of this was for server upkeep. That's BS, and why I designated it a "potential $10." If this was for the servers, there would be a monthly fee regardless of ownership. This is just a way for developers to get a new profit, which hurts the consumer.

Give me one logical reason the developers are doing this other than to gain more profit.

 

Yeah I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with server costs. As a curious note, I wonder how this $10 fee relates to this:

http://www.ea.com/2/service-updates

I would be pretty pissed if I bought a used Madden 11 say a year from now, pay the $10 and find out EA's shutting the servers down the next week.

 

I will probably just purchase 1 game, so my friends and cousins can just come over and play online multiplayer. That will save us a lot of money in the long run.

 

How is this different from PC gaming? When you buy a game used on PC, you almost never expect the CD key for online gaming to be available. Been around for a long time, console gamers just got to enjoy free multi-player for too long.

 

Well do what I do, simply contact EA Sports and tell them your code is smeared and you can't read it. Never once had a problem with the several games I've done it with. This is complete and utter BS

 

That's not entirely true....depending on how the online works. Now days, most CD keys are associated with a master account like Steam or Battle.net, so you couldn't really do anything with a "used" cd key.

But before that became the standard, online gaming with the same CD key was mostly a first come first serve deal. If I was logged on starcraft with my cd key, then you were stuck and couldn't log in with the cd key. Of course because of that, very few people actually sold legit cd keys anyway....

 

People are cheap. That's all I'm going to say.

 

Oh... so I should be expecting to pay for online living rosters, online play, and cheat codes that cost Microsoft points?

EA Sports has dipped down low, to the point where you have to PAY MONEY to unlock and use cheat codes.

If 2K does the impossible, and actually mirrors what EA Sports is doing, I'm not going to buy any Sports games from ANYBODY.

 

What if someones game system messes up and they have to buy a new one? They would have to pay $10 to get a new code... BS...

 

Hopefully the code is applied to your Xbox Live account and not tied directly to your personal box.

 

EA likely isn't seeing any of your $50. You have MS to thank for that.

(And the $10 EA is charging makes way more sense to me than the $50 MS charges).

Uh...no.

Certainly some companies have done quite well. But the game industry can be a pretty brutal industry. May take sales of 500K or more to actually break even on a project (and this would be for a fairly average project, not GTA, MGS, FF, etc.). And a lot of games don't hit that mark.

I haven't kept up with EA's policy for shutting down servers, but I doubt they'd shut them down less than a year after the game was released. And even if they did, I'm guessing you could probably just reuse your code for Madden 12. Or if you really wanted to complain, they'd give you your money back (though maybe only in credit). That's also assuming they'd even allow sales of the codes within a week of the servers going offline.

Haven't really read how they'll implement this, but I assumed it would be tied to your XBL/PSN/EA account. Activating the code will tie it to your account. As long as you log in with that same account, you'd be good to play online.

Just like your DLC would transfer to other systems...at least, I'm pretty sure it does (I haven't bothered to buy DLC...just some free stuff).


Anyway, I'm OK with this, assuming it doesn't really go any further. I try to avoid buying used anyway, unless it is just too good of a deal to pass up. Rather give my money to the developer than GameStop, Best Buy, etc. Though as DD mentioned, hopefully this won't be too big of an issue for long, and we'll get closer to Digital Distribution for console games. Cheaper for us (usually WAY cheaper in some cases), and I'm guessing developers/publishers get better profits (no middleman, no manufacturing costs, etc.). And less pressure from retail stores to keep digital prices inline with store prices (if the game is sold in a store for $50, no way it can be sold for $20-$25 digitally, even if the developer gets paid the same amount either way).

 

If EA stops making games that suck I'll buy them at launch.

 

Just a fad on my part I buy the new madden and play it for a month then lend it to my cousins. I will probably avoid purchasing any sports games all together.

 

To be fair, I think EA has made lots of games that don't suck. Mirror's Edge, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield, Dead Space, Burnout, etc.

Now EA Sports...

(though I think their NHL and FIFA games might be good).

 

Problem is that most games on consoles do not use dedicated servers. It is p2p, so they are charging us for what we already pay our service providers.

 

Yeah I should have specified EA Sports. For sports games, the only game that I buy at launch is MLB The Show. For most other games, if they have enough hype I will probably buy it (Heavy Rain, Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto etc.)

 

Don't like it. Essentially just taking away another 'feature' that has up to this point been free.

It also amazes me when I see people who think it is in any way a good idea to kill the used market.

and, if you seriously think that this is only going this far and 'stopping here'....well.....

 

This is just not true, most games lose money or barely break even, the big winners pay for the rest of the risk.

It would be great if those solid single types of games could realize more revenue from all the used sales.

The Sabetuer is one such game....great game, very little front end purchases lots of used purchases.

Pandemic is now out of business.

DD