GODDAMN IT EA!! NOT ANOTHER THING!!!

From a Yahoo Article:

If you buy your sports games used and enjoy playing them online for free, EA would like to have a word with you.

And that word would be "no."

The mega-publisher announced Monday that beginning with the June 8th release of Tiger Woods 11, all future EA Sports games for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will include a one-time, game-specific "Online Pass" code, which grants access to "online services, features and bonus content."

Sounds fine and dandy, but for one catch: while the code comes free with new copies of any EA Sports game, it can only be used once. Buy the game used -- or even just rent it through a service like GameFly -- and you'll be unable to play it online beyond a free seven-day trial period...unless you cough up $10 for an additional Online Pass.

"This is an important inflection point in our business because it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhance premium online services to the entire robust EA SPORTS online community," said EA Sports president Peter Moore.

According to the official Online Pass site, online services that will be affected by the feature include "multiplayer online play, group features like online dynasty and leagues, user created content, and bonus downloadable content for your game including, for example, a new driver in Tiger."

The move is part of EA's so-called "Project Ten Dollar" initiative and is considered another attack on the used game market, which many publishers see as a financial black hole. EA has made prior attempts to dissuade the practice, although it remains an affordable solution to gamers looking for a bit of a bargain at the cost of owning new.

Interestingly, leading game retailer GameStop, who enjoy substantial revenue from selling used games, is seemingly supportive of the new program.

"This relationship allows us to capitalize on our investments to market and sell downloadable content online, as well as through our network of stores worldwide," said GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo.

So is this a smart move by EA, or merely another case of a publisher gouging its customers?


And now I ask, What the Fuck is this shit EA? Trying to take more money from us? Fuck sakes....

its fucking bullshit

They don't get anything from used game sales, so it makes sense to me. This is just them trying to discourage people buying used games, which causes them to lose lots of money.

Elabajaba wrote:They don't get anything from used game sales, so it makes sense to me. This is just them trying to discourage people buying used games, which causes them to lose lots of money.

This is pretty much my stance as well. At least they're offering the chance for second time users to get in online instead of just blanking them entirely. It may not be great for the consumer, but the second hand market is a pretty big deal.

If someone bought an old shirt at a garage sale, should they still have to pay the store that originally sold it just to wear it?

but is the maker of the shirt coming and making sure the shirt is functioning properly? no

EA still has to support the games online.

many developers already do this with one time use codes for lots of extended content.

Good thing I don't buy any EA sports games then

I haven't bought a new console game in my life.
I also have never tried to get online with any of them, so this really doesn't affect me unless they start having paid usage for PC/Mac online.

I don't play EA sports games.

Let alone play them online.


Go ahead EA.

I play madden sometimes but besides that nothin.

Good thing EA servers are some of the worst in the business that they barely function.

I expected this after Mass Effect 2 and Bad company 2 doing similar things.

To be fair the developer and publishers don't get any return on a used game, and it hurts the industry a lot.

It's a dickish move, but from a business stance it makes sense.

While the shirt company may not have to come over every few weeks to ensure that the shirt is still functional, the shirt company also doesn't release a shirt that requires weekly maintenance to remain functional. The shirt company makes a shirt, and it will continue to function properly as long as you don't physically break it for years.

And I would hardly qualify EA customer service as real customer service. I mean, have you ever actually tried to use it? Their customer service representatives are surely automated, and it pisses me off. My got flagged for a typo in a Spore creature description because I accidentally typed "tits" instead of "its". I got an email saying that I could dispute the flag by going to the customer service area. So I went down and asked if obvious typos counted as profanity under the terms agreement, and I got back a regurgitated message that basically just referred me to a section of the terms agreement that I had already read and was referring to. When I told him that I had read that section and that he had not answered my question, another representative posted the section of the terms agreement in question. When I again pointed out that this had nothing to do with my question, that I had read it, and that I was asking a question pertaining to it that simply reading it would not answer, they marked my question as answered and locked it.

So no, EA has no real legitimate claim to having to maintain their games, because most of the issues they are maintaining are also caused by them. It would be like if you bought a shirt at a garage sale and every few weeks, a guy from the shirt company would come and tear a hole in it, and only customers who bought the shirt new would get access to tailors to fix it.

Not to mention that even if EA had a legitimate claim to customer service, it doesn't matter. Do you know why? Because EA got their money. EA was paid once for the game to maintain that game. It isn't like when the game is resold, there are now two copies of it, and so EA has to maintain extra games. They are maintaining one game per purchase, and whether that game is owned by the originally buyer or a new buyer has nothing to do with whether EA has a legal obligation to support the game.

At the end of the day, this is pure greedy corporate bullshit, and just another reason why I am going to murder every member of the management of EA when I snap and become a serial killer.

They're corporate assholes, but they're only doing because used games are the scourge of the industry.

The fact you can get a relatively new game are nearly half the price very quickly drops a lot of money from their pockets. Gamestop lives of it's used game sales, and not a single penny goes to the people who made the game.

I have no love for EA, and their only second to activison as my most hated game publisher, and as much as I hate this move, I can understand why they did it, and it's just an expansion of the shit they've been pulling for the last couple of months.