EA Sports Throws A Haymaker Against Used Games

**The Sith** · 05-11-2010

EA Sports Throws A Haymaker Against Used Games

Posted by Malik "Tha-Truth" Forte on May 11, 2010 at 4:24am
View Malik "Tha-Truth" Forte's blog

Many developers have utilized the concept of packaging new copies of their titles with content exclusive only to those who buy a fresh copy of the game. But now EA has taken it to the next level, making online play only possible to those with an "Online Pass", which is to be packaged with every new copy of their games released on June 8th and beyond. So basically, if you purchase a new game, you get a code free of charge that you can enter and use to play your EA game online. But what if you buy the game used?

Then you're going to have to pay an extra $10 to get an online pass for whatever game you purchased used. Without the online pass, you will not be playing the game online, it's that plain and simple. Whether or not the pass is usable for multiple users on the same console unit remains to be determined, but by the sounds of things, I'm thinking you'll have to pay an extra ten dollars to play your game under other usernames. This is what EA Sports senior vice president Andrew Wilson had to say about the new service.

"We've made a significant investment to offer the most immersive online experience available," said Wilson. "We want to reserve EA Sports online services for people who pay EA to access them."

So though many might see this as greedy or rather messed up, it is EA's right, as this is an online service that they provide. I personally think it's not too bad of a move on their part, as piracy and used game sells are growing in trend as the days go by. At the same time, it is everyone's right to sell or trade their games as they please, and this hinders that liberty all depreciating the value of the game upon use of the online pass. This in the long run can either help EA or hurt them, as this may cause many to not buy their games. I expect to see Activision hop on this train quite soon if this does work out in favor of EA. So who's buying Tiger Woods '11?

http://www.ironstarmovement.com/prof...ows-a-haymaker

**raiuben** · 05-11-2010

Who cares, nobody plays sports games more then a few weeks and then they drop to $10 or less xD

**mickice** · 05-11-2010

I don't like this at all, alot of EA Sports titles are bought when the game is hot and in fashion and then usually traded in and sold to people at a cheaper price.

I certainly will not be supporting any game that charges you for online just because your disc is pre-owned.

The only outcome will be, game stores will give you almost nothing for the disc and you'll probably buy less games.

**keefy** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by raiuben

Who cares, nobody plays sports games more then a few weeks and then they drop to $10 or less xD

You should care because it is successful then other publishers/developers may follow suite then it becomes the "standard" for all games.

**Gilly3** · 05-11-2010

id be fine with this if EA games actually worked online.

**jonathanm1978** · 05-11-2010

And as with BF2, my wife and I both use the same console *currently, until pell grant time, when I'm purchasing a new HDTV and 2nd PS3 console*...
When I bought BF2, and got that "Oh, SO mighty* VIP Code with it for the limited edition..My wife started playing after I played a little during the day, then she found that none of the VIP stuffs were available to her. How's that fair? I bought the game...it's on MY console..why do I NOT get multiple accounts for the same console? And then we find that EA charges for new VIP codes to be used on the SAME console if you want more than 1 user? HOW the HE77 is that fair? Easy solution: Take the game BACK and tell them "somethings wrong, it don't work" and get another NEW packaged game..use the 2nd game's VIP code to grant HER account access to VIP stuff. PROBLEM SOLVED. And a big FU to EA for trying to make me buy something I already bought. It's like buying 2 licenses for the same game..or 2 tags for your car, just because you have another driver besides yourself..what if the government made you do that?
If your car was driven by you, and your wife..and you had to buy a separate tag for your wife to be able to drive your car..would that make you 'happy'? Proud to be supporting your local county officials? I doubt it. Tags aren't cheap, especially on newer cars..can range upwards of 200 bucks on average 1-3 year old cars, and higher, toward 700-800 on classics and sports cars...so how'd you like to buy a separate tag for your wife to drive your 2010 Jag, when that tag costs a whopping 450 bucks EACH? Same basis...they don't have that right..and they didn't get an extra 15 bucks from me just so I could have more than 1 person using the SAME game on the SAME console.

Now granted, when I get my 2nd PS3 and something like that comes up, that'll be understandable...but no sense in making this the case for same-console owners with more than 1 user.

**GreekWarrior** · 05-11-2010

When we move to a full online distribution in the future, say goodbye to second hand games anyway.

**keefy** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by jonathanm1978

VIP codes are different, if one code could be used multiple times on seperate accounts we could all pass it around and not have to pay for it.

**Pestilence** · 05-11-2010

You can thank places like Gamestop for this. They buy up games for next to nothing and turn around and sell them $5 cheaper than the new copies. An example is here in Canada trade in at Gamestop for GoW III is currently $23 (http://www.tivs.ca/trade-in-values/) They then stick it back on the shelf for $54.99. The link below shows just how much used games make up their profits.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=23396

Can you really blame developers trying to do something when a particular copy of a game could potentially be resold multiple times? Sure people trade games amongst themselves and on kijiji but someone has to want to play the game for you to be able to sell it.

I'm not saying I agree with this strategy but on the same hand I can see there is a problem.

**F34R** · 05-11-2010

I buy the great majority of my new games from amazon now. I usually get them for "used" game prices, and pre-order and purchase bonuses. I've been getting new games for $49 to $54.. then getting a $10 off next game, which lowers that down to $44...

I'm please with Amazon's service. I'm a prime "sub" so I get release day delivery for free. I've all but stopped using gamestop for purchases. I have used them for trade-ins recently but that is the last time I am doing that.

As far as companies charging for extra codes, or codes for new games... hmmm... not sure about it so far. It won't affect me, but I'm not sure how much I agree with it. I might just forgo supporting something like that. I'm not too sure where I stand completely on the idea, so we'll see.

**gn09** · 05-11-2010

i thought they kind of started this off with mass effect 2, not to suprised that something like this will be introduced, typical money making scheme,some of the changes at the moment are just rubbish

**aLterBridge** · 05-11-2010

maybe they should improve their servers first

**zoidy84** · 05-11-2010

does suck i got to say, Lego Rockband did something similar to this whereby they included a code you could use if you wanted to export all the songs into Rockband 2. Then once that code has been used thats it, so if you sold the game and someone bought it second hand they would be completely unable to export those tracks to Rockband 2.

Slightly diferent as that doesn't limit the game the same way EA want to but still!

**mertle** · 05-11-2010

to defend EA there has been loads complaints about MAPPERS/CHEATING who use multiple acounts on TIGER WOODS.

This likely way to stop these because who gonna want to pay $10 for more acounts.

However the issue really is the game is open to cheatism allowing people to max out with suits.

able to tweak clubs and still BOOST wind never changed.

Pins rarely moved locations unrealistic club physics like being able to spin flops.

Driving 500 yards +

If they done a better job then the game would be more challenging

would argue monitor swing if theyre perfect then its a cheat controller or its taped to make sure you cant abuse the system.

If the took clitches out then maybe the mabbers would be thing of the past.

**se7enthsign** · 05-11-2010

I honestly can't blame EA for trying to do something. I just hope they don't screw the wrong people. As expensive as game development is, you have to understand that these guys need to maximize their profits any way they can. Discouraging used game sales is something that needs to be done. Gamestop is making a fortune off of everyone elses hard work. Honestly, this can be good for everybody if EA gets it right.

There are a LOT of things that can go wrong though. Let's say you want to rent the next Medal of Honor. Are you not going to be able to play online? This can backfire in a lot of ways, but until the process is actually detailed and in the wild, we won't know if it will succeed. Personally, I hope it does, not so much for EA, but for all of the smaller studios who can barely afford to make big budget games and REALLY get screwed when Gamestop profits more on their titles than they do.

**dc89** · 05-11-2010

EA Sports It's In The Game... and if it isn't we'll charge you for it later.

**darksora** · 05-11-2010

I wouldnt mind this if they didnt limit it to one account. I have 4 users on my ps3, so it means only one would get to use the code >_<

**SuperSayian5Goku** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by dc89

EA Sports It's In The Game... and if it isn't we'll charge you for it later.

I think they need to be sued for using that slogan because it really is not in the game when it comes to EA.

*goo · 05-11-2010

Although I don't purchase many second hand games, I do buy a lot of games; and as a result sell many 'second hand'.

This will simply stop me buying EA games until their prices are rock bottom, sub £15. Even at that, it will be limited to 'want to play' games and I'll just stop taking the risk on games that I wasn't 100% sure about.

It might limit the second hand market, but should it be at the expense of their actual full price paying customers?

**loki993** · 05-11-2010

I don't like it one bit. If you think its only going to be sports games, think again. This will spread to all their games guaranteed. also if you think its just for online stuff, again think again. I read somewhere else its called "project ten dollar" I wouldn't be surprised if they start charging for other stuff as well. This is only the first step.

I don't know normally when I see used games they don't seem to be much of a value anyway. Places like gamestop only seem to charge around 5 dollars less than new for a decent used game and at that point the savings isn't worth it to me. Its even less worth it if I have to pay another 10 dollars to get online.

this could backfire greatly on them and it could be viewed as trying to screw gamers and some people will quit buying their products.

Honestly though its been years since Ive bought an EA Sports game. They don't seem the be trying too hard to greatly improve them with their yearly releases to justify the 60 dollars they cost.

I really think they should go to a 2 year release format, release updated content for the games on the off year, for a reasonable price, and then they could probably make a better product worth my 60 dollars. They have too many people though that just blind buy every year no matter what though. They've gotten too big and don't really care about the gamer anymore IMHO, at least not the sports division. Its all about cranking a passable game every year, because they know people will buy it no matter what.

**PsychoMantis** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by raiuben

Who cares, nobody plays sports games more then a few weeks and then they drop to $10 or less xD

This is true, I have been playing madden and NCAA football games for the longest time and nearly every year before my 360 died. I played the game for about a week or a week and a half then traded it in after getting all the achievements then the game gets dull.

**ttech10** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by Pestilence

You can thank places like Gamestop for this. They buy up games for next to nothing and turn around and sell them $5 cheaper than the new copies. An example is here in Canada trade in at Gamestop for GoW III is currently $23 (http://www.tivs.ca/trade-in-values/) They then stick it back on the shelf for $54.99. The link below shows just how much used games make up their profits.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=23396

Can you really blame developers trying to do something when a particular copy of a game could potentially be resold multiple times? Sure people trade games amongst themselves and on kijiji but someone has to want to play the game for you to be able to sell it.

I'm not saying I agree with this strategy but on the same hand I can see there is a problem.

Yep, I remember reading about developers/publishers wanting to take used game sales away from GameStop about a year ago.

It's just way too easy for GameStop to make a lot of money off of used copies so hardly nobody buys new copies. I wonder how much money GameStop has actually stolen away from new game sales.

Personally when it comes to used games I rarely buy them and when I do it's not for a game I'm going to play online so this doesn't really affect me. Such is the case for sports games. When I talk to people who play EA Sports games online most of them talk about cheesers and people leaving mid-game or when they're about to lose. That alone makes me want to stay away from the online completely.

It will be interesting to see if GameStop will lower their used game price by $10 if this starts affecting their used game sales (of course we'll have to wait for FIFA 11, Madden 11 and NCAA Football 11 to find out).

**Pez_555** · 05-11-2010

i never buy used games anyway.

**Suzano-O** · 05-11-2010

I don't play any EA games online anyways...

These guys are ******ed if they think this isn't gonna backfire...Gamestop's/EB Games'/Electronic Boutique's USED catalog is easily the highest grossing video games sales outlet in USA, period...

**The Sith** · 05-11-2010

Originally Posted by ttech10

Yep, I remember reading about developers/publishers wanting to take used game sales away from GameStop about a year ago.

It's just way too easy for GameStop to make a lot of money off of used copies so hardly nobody buys new copies. I wonder how much money GameStop has actually stolen away from new game sales.

Personally when it comes to used games I rarely buy them and when I do it's not for a game I'm going to play online so this doesn't really affect me. Such is the case for sports games. When I talk to people who play EA Sports games online most of them talk about cheesers and people leaving mid-game or when they're about to lose. That alone makes me want to stay away from the online completely.

It will be interesting to see if GameStop will lower their used game price by $10 if this starts affecting their used game sales (of course we'll have to wait for FIFA 11, Madden 11 and NCAA Football 11 to find out).

millions consequently billions of dollars.