EA's Online Pass or Used Game Premium

[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by Carnage17

i agree with people not having enough time to play them but how about an alternate model altogether: make games shorter, cheaper, and by extension cheaper and shorter to make... this is also smaller risk on the part of publishers.

I think Nintendo is already doing something like that... turns out they make a lot of crappy games.

This may sound like the much-talked about "episodic" model of game design, and yes it is similar, but im talking less segmented than that. or, maybe just the way valve does "episodes" (lol)

Hey, nothing wrong with the way Valve does episodes. They just take a really long time is all.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

Price collapse model? There is a theory to this insanity? The real problem is that games are way too much money out the gate and there are way too many games. The reality is developers need to either make less games so that people can afford them and have time to play them lol, but that will cost them money; or they can keep making tons of games and LOWER THE PRICES. This is exacerbated by this 3-console + PC gaming market where you often need to buy the hit games across 4 platforms. Total, insane, expensive, craziness.

Oh I completely agree that the game industry needs a more flexible pricing scheme.

There are games (VERY few I should state) that I think are worth the $60 admission fee and then there are games in which I think they have a much better chance of selling if they launched at 30-40 bucks.

The problem with that at times is perceived values, most people associate cheaper games with poorer qualities so they don't bat an eye at it or anything.

Originally Posted by Carnage17

i agree with people not having enough time to play them but how about an alternate model altogether: make games shorter, cheaper, and by extension cheaper and shorter to make... this is also smaller risk on the part of publishers.

But they are making shorter games, the two Gears of War, Splinter Cell Conviction, and I'm sure tons of other games don't even begin to hit double digits for completion. But we still pay full price for it, (I'm sure a case could and would be made for co-op/online extending the standard play-time)

Originally Posted by Combine 017

I think Nintendo is already doing something like that... turns out they make a lot of crappy games.

Not the place for this conversation, but I'm just going to say you are wrong and leave it there.

[BreakABone]

I think it's brilliant, and don't think that it's intended to "battle" used sales. The concept is simple: as gamers migrate to heavier online play as a part of the experience, the publisher needs to be compensated.

If the gamer is the original purchaser, the publisher gets paid when the user buys the game; if the gamer is a second-hand purchaser, the publisher currently does not get paid. With Online Pass, EA is ensuring that second-hand purchasers will pay something for the maintenance of the server network and for access to premium content, since they extend the costs of providing these services.

Yes, I think it will become the norm at the major publishers, and think that EA is charging too little...

I think the game industry has created a problem for itself by giving consumers unlimited online game play for free. I think not just to battle used games, but as a basic business sense of generating more revenue from usage more and more of these programs will be looked at being implemented.

How consumers react is a totally different issue.

But overall the EA Sports Online Pass seems like a mild introduction. I can see consumers griping, but really it seems entirely fair that if a consumer is buying a second hand copy they are not going to get direct support from the publisher. It is not like they are charging a season pass for all users that want to play Madden online.

The reality is that these games are pretty expensive to develop and it is unrealistic to expect companies to support free online play forever. I think the bottom line in the industry requires companies to start to find ways to monetize online usage.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/e...-says-analyst/