Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 3 were potential no-brainer purchases for me. Now? Not so much.
In short, Project Ten Dollar was designed to reward people for buying new games. Online Pass is designed to punish people for buying second-hand games. That’s a subtle but extremely important difference in approach. [...] Online Pass also raises a number of awkward questions both for EA and for the console platform holders. For example, is it now reasonable to expect that EA Sports games will have significantly longer life-spans than previously? [...] Additionally, what’s the status of Xbox Live Gold in this arrangement? EA Sports boss Peter Moore was in the hot seat at Microsoft when the company launched the Xbox Live Gold and Silver service tiers, so he knows perfectly well that Xbox 360 gamers already pay a monthly fee to Microsoft to play online. The understanding was always that games which charged an additional levy (such as MMORPGs) would be accessible to Silver members – you wouldn’t have to pay twice. So will EA Sports games, with their paid-for online service, now be available to Silver customers? Or are customers to reach into their pockets twice, once for Microsoft and once for EA, simply to play a game of football against a friend in another city?
Fuck EA.
The more research I do on this situation, the more I think it’s little more EA’s management putting on some Kabuki for their shareholders, rather than an actual attempt to staunch the bleeding.
Yours was the only comment that made any sense in the GI page – the rest of them were merely cheerleading. I guess as a site for ‘industry’ it makes sense, but it’s also so damn similar to gamers applauding EA, that it’s mind-numbing.
I was afraid this would happen – that acquiesce to P$10 would lead to harsher, more anti-consumer moves. Had no idea it would happen so quick, or that gamers would continue to champion the plan.
My next guess? Medal of Honor and whatever Respawn shits out for EA will have the same Online Pass. Or be a subscription based thing – and folks said Activision was bad…
Spot on Jack. Although I don’t get censoring the work fuck in the title when it isn’t censored in the article and everyone can see the article in full.
@Gregory: Something about my simmering rage coming to a boil by the end of the post. Or something :-)