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Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS)
EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play online
EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play online
Destructoid - May 10, 2010
Submitted by TheSmilkman (101) at 11:42AM PST on May 11, 2010
Last year, EA Sports introduced the long-awaited Online Franchise mode in Madden NFL 10. But if you wanted to play it, you had to either buy the game new and type in a one-time-use code that came in the box, or pay $10 for a code. This year, EA Sports is extending that policy across all of its games, and now, the code won't merely unlock a single online mode -- it's a gatekeeper for online play altogether.
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1Animate posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 4:21PM PST on May 12, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play online@DrMarioKart,
There's also more piracy and less sales due to higher game prices.[ Oracle ] [ Level 26 ] [ Rank: 241 ]bids
1Jonman posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:35AM PST on May 12, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play onlineAplogies for the double-post - I neglected one other thing to mention.
This move does not affect EA's customers, it affects *Gamestop's* customers. From EA's point of view, this gives them competetive advantage over their competitors - it makes the second-hand game less attractive, which makes the new product more attractive.
Expect to see similar things from the other publishers - it makes too much sense for them *not* to do it.[ Speaker ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 379 ]bids
1Jonman posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:32AM PST on May 12, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play onlineFrankly, I'm amazed that it's taken this long to get to this point. Published have been complaining about their perceived losses due to the second hand market for years, something which is even more concrete when they're incurring real costs by running servers for those second-hand owners.
If I was an EA stockholder, I'd be applauding this as a very smart business decision.
Ultimately, the only one that loses is Gamestop. This will force them to drop the cost of a second hand EA game (and thus reduce their margin on that sale), otherwise the value-proposition for the potential customer on a second hand game is off, and customers will simply buy new instead.
Of course, there's a knock on effect to the customer who buys new and subsequently wants to trade in, as Gamestop will no doubt pay less for a trade-in on these EA Sports titles in order to maintain as much of a margin as they can. But, as ever, the onus is on the consumer to be educated, and weight that knowledge in their decision to purchase a title.[ Speaker ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 379 ]bids
2apujanata posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 8:10AM PST on May 12, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play online@Joe80,
First you pay $10 one time, then you pay $20 one time, and pretty soon, you are paying $10/month, aka something like XBOX Live, but only for one publisher (EA Sports). Multiply that by several publisher (like Activision, Sony etc), and you wouldn't be surprised that gaming are going down the hill.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
2DrMarioKart posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 3:33AM PST on May 12, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play onlineEveryone complains about the income lost through the second hand market, but no one wants to look at the other side of the issue and control development costs.
Waging war on the used market is only a temporary fix. Once they win, through digital distribution or what have you, they still are going to have to contend with the reality that revenue from sales just doesnt recoup costs.[ Veteran ] [ Level 22 ] [ Rank: 448 ]bids
1Animate posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 3:37PM PST on May 11, 2010. RE: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play online@TheSmilkman,
I think more publishers are going to start doing this. I'll be playing less games online.[ Oracle ] [ Level 26 ] [ Rank: 241 ]bids
14TheSmilkman posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 11:42AM PST on May 11, 2010. Article: EA Sports Online Pass: Buy new or pay $10 to play onlineLast year, EA Sports introduced the long-awaited Online Franchise mode in Madden NFL 10. But if you wanted to play it, you had to either buy the game new and type in a one-time-use code that came in the box, or pay $10 for a code. This year, EA Sports is extending that policy across all of its games, and now, the code won't merely unlock a single online mode -- it's a gatekeeper for online play altogether.[ Guru ] [ Level 22 ] [ Rank: 101 ]
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Good analysis. GS will give you less for the game and charge a bit less. I think this will not hurt GS as much as people may think because they will give you a lesser amount and take off a smaller amount on the used price. For ex
They buy the game from you for $18 now instead of $25 and they charge you $50 now instead of $55. They will stack the margins in their favor. The person that loses out most is the used seller and buyer.