EA does something right!!

[Platinum]

Online Passes – the controversial attempt by many publishers to encourage new game sales by locking online-centric content for used copies – has become engrained in gaming culture over the last several years. But according to a report on VentureBeat, one major company is doing away with them.

Electronic Arts – the mega-publisher behind a litany of games including Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, Dead Space, Mass Effect and more – will be “discontinuing” its Online Pass initiative. In a statement provided to VentureBeat, EA’s John Reseburg said that “none of our new EA titles will include that feature.”

Reseburg admitted that Online Passes just don’t seem to be working. “Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”

Many major publishers – including Sony and Ubisoft – continue to use Online Passes, though interestingly, Microsoft never seemed to go down that road. Will EA’s abolishment of this system coerce other publishers to follow suit?




Original Article HURR (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/15/ea-getting-rid-of-online-passes?abthid=51941c440f9 eb34d77000029)

[Maxdoggy]

You realize they've only done this to make them seem like the "good guy" when Microsoft announced that you'll only be able to play one copy of a game online - as it'll be connected to your account/xbox, right?

Good PR move by EA, though.

[Platinum]

You realize they've only done this to make them seem like the "good guy" when Microsoft announced that you'll only be able to play one copy of a game online - as it'll be connected to your account/xbox, right?

Good PR move by EA, though.

I thought that the "one copy" thing was a rumor?

[Fiery Grave]

everything is just rumor about the next xbox right now

but honestly i agree with the online passes, they seem like a pain to those who buy used but I think we wouldn't have an EA right now without them. EA has been struggling for a long time now they generally barely make a profit compared to other publishers and thats has a lot to do with people buying used games.

buying a used game is as beneficial to a publisher or developer as someone pirating the game they see the exact same amount of money, it may actually be worse because its "legal" and now they feel they have bought the game and have done nothing wrong while most people who pirate games, if they like it, will also buy the game eventually and since pc games can't be bought used and because things like steam actually give more money to publishers and developers it generates some revenue for them.

thats why sony copyrighted the tech for their PS4 that makes it so a game can only be played on one console because they are going to sell the shit out of that to the other companies like microsoft.

take a little looksie into the cost of a game in the attached image

4069

over 800000 units for an average game to break even? :S

while if you look at what steam and other online publishers take (origin, XBLA) its just straight up 30% (for a 49.99 game develpoers/publishers get 34.99) and people have to buy new cause there is no used system now if you were selling a game which looks more appealing?

[Zeta Crossfire]

As a person who buys online passed I'm sad to see this go. For games like Battlefield, Halo, ect I buy all the DLC anyway so getting them at a discount was awesome.

[KazuhLLL]

As a person who buys online passed I'm sad to see this go. For games like Battlefield, Halo, ect I buy all the DLC anyway so getting them at a discount was awesome.

Well one of us is confused about the meaning of online passes...

[Platinum]

As a person who buys online passed I'm sad to see this go. For games like Battlefield, Halo, ect I buy all the DLC anyway so getting them at a discount was awesome.

Online passes are those pesky "Oh you bought the game used? Lol, Fuck you" things often associated with Madden and what not.
SEASON passes are what you're talking about. Microsoft has yet to implement online passes, and hopefully it will stay that way.

[Zeta Crossfire]

You're right, I miss read it.

[Fiery Grave]

Online passes are those pesky "Oh you bought the game used? Lol, Fuck you"

Im guessing you read none of what i wrote if your describing them as such.

while the reality is "i dont wanna sped 5$ more on buying a new game and supporting the developer to make more awesome content so im going to buy it used where it cost me 5$ less but the developer got 0$ from me enjoying this game"

Why do you think pay to play games are becoming more and more popular lately, give out the game for free but make them pay either in micro transactions or monthly fees, also why DLC is rushed out the door at lower quality lately as if people buy that they get more of the money even from people who bought it used. this is why a game company like THQ who makes awesome games like saints row company of heros and many more are now out of business.(yes they had some bad decisions made but with how well a lot of their titles did it shouldn't have bankrupted them)

Im for a law that states if a game comes out you can sell it used if you pay the publisher (who then pay the developer) at least some percentage of the profit

its the entire reason online passes and "bought new" bonuses exist is because its making a HUGE cut into their profits, millions of dollars are going to places like GameStop and instead of people who make the games

[MedeDust]

Im guessing you read none of what i wrote if your describing them as such.

while the reality is "i dont wanna sped 5$ more on buying a new game and supporting the developer to make more awesome content so im going to buy it used where it cost me 5$ less but the developer got 0$ from me enjoying this game"

Why do you think pay to play games are becoming more and more popular lately, give out the game for free but make them pay either in micro transactions or monthly fees, also why DLC is rushed out the door at lower quality lately as if people buy that they get more of the money even from people who bought it used. this is why a game company like THQ who makes awesome games like saints row company of heros and many more are now out of business.(yes they had some bad decisions made but with how well a lot of their titles did it shouldn't have bankrupted them)

Im for a law that states if a game comes out you can sell it used if you pay the publisher (who then pay the developer) at least some percentage of the profit

its the entire reason online passes and "bought new" bonuses exist is because its making a HUGE cut into their profits, millions of dollars are going to places like GameStop and instead of people who make the games

They should support us by lowering the price.

[Fiery Grave]

They should support us by lowering the price.

4072
same as above but as a link
http://fcwars.net/forums/attachment.php?attachment id=4072&d=1368752512

I dont really see where they could... 800000 copies need to be sold to break even on an average AAAA quality title

and it can be hard for a game to sell that many copies, especially when its a new IP
out of your 60$ the people who get the most is gamestop, publishers about 5$ per copy, developers about the same, Gamestop... 15-20$ (average earned by a publisher is 5$ even on a 60$ game, the extra 10$ from the 49.99 - 59.99 goes to gamestop...

edit ohh that image has a wrong last image i'll fix that for you

[MedeDust]

4071
same as above but as a link
http://fcwars.net/forums/attachment.php?attachment id=4071&d=1368710848

I dont really see where they could... 800000 copies need to be sold to break even on an average AAAA quality title

and it can be hard for a game to sell that many copies, especially when its a new IP
out of your 60$ the people who get the most is gamestop, publishers about 5$ per copy, developers about the same, Gamestop... 15-20$ (average earned by a publisher is 5$ even on a 60$ game, the extra 10$ from the 49.99 - 59.99 goes to gamestop...

edit ohh that image has a wrong last image i'll fix that for you

You ruined my humor -_-

[Fiery Grave]

I didn't get it and still dont honestly

[Maxdoggy]

MedeDust's brand of humor is "not making sense".

[Graycochea]

Remember when games were $50? Or when cartridges were the "thing" so discs sold for cheap? Man, those were the days.

Publishers should open their own stores. Cut out the middleman(Gamestop in this hypothetical scenario), that way, they could lower prices for us, but still walk away with more of a profit than they currently make. Say $40 a game, $20 goes to them, $20 goes to the developer, $20 stays with us. Literally, everyone wins. That would work in an ideal world where everything was fair, unfortunately, that's a pipe dream.

What I find interesting though, is if one were to buy a new game from Origin(EA's online store thingy), it's still $60. No price cut from buying directly from them instead of going to a middleman(Gamestop). That begs the question, how much goes to the developer from that transaction?

[Fiery Grave]

Remember when games were $50? Or when cartridges were the "thing" so discs sold for cheap? Man, those were the days.

Publishers should open their own stores. Cut out the middleman(Gamestop in this hypothetical scenario), that way, they could lower prices for us, but still walk away with more of a profit than they currently make. Say $40 a game, $20 goes to them, $20 goes to the developer, $20 stays with us. Literally, everyone wins. That would work in an ideal world where everything was fair, unfortunately, that's a pipe dream.

What I find interesting though, is if one were to buy a new game from Origin(EA's online store thingy), it's still $60. No price cut from buying directly from them instead of going to a middleman(Gamestop). That begs the question, how much goes to the developer from that transaction?

publishers get 70% (for non EA games on origin (which there are a few) and non valve games on steam) and 30% goes to the service. Games on steam and origin though often go on massive sale fairly often and your getting a 40$ game for 10$, plus on average a game is 10$ cheaper on these services (not all though).

Developers get paid to make the game no matter how much it sells they get the same base amount (ball park average for a game is 8 million - 10 million) but then they get royalties off of that 70% which is usually like 10-15 % which in retail that percentage is take from the profit after the retailer and manufacturing fees which ends up being around 21$ per unit (online its about 31$ going off above numbers). And if that game does well and makes the publisher lots of money when the developer goes and pitches the next game the work on to the publisher they are a lot more likely to say yes and more likely to give them more money to make a better game.

BUT if everyone buys used the publisher makes less money they think the game isn't popular with the public and that game studio has no idea what they are doing and just wasted the publishers money and they probably wont back them again. also now the publisher is out 15 million on this title and doesn't have that money to give to another developer who could be working on something you would love to play. Its a sad cycle, and i know its not something you really want to hear but games get made because publisher have lots of money - more money in the publishers hands more games for us! And more job for me!

Your idea on them opening their own retail store is one they have already started testing, but then comes all the paying employees manufacturing cost and other cost that come with owning a store like that. Also smaller publishers cannot afford to open a store everywhere and would not be able to start up themselves. in the end the publisher would have to take that extra 20$ to pay for the stores


Edit:
wow that was a wall of text

TL: DR
online distribution is a 70/30 split , 70 for publishers 30 for the service

Publishers need more money so they can pay developers to make more games

if publishers opened stores they would need to take that 20$ to pay for the stores

also i think there is a bit of confusion for some people on what a publisher does, they dont just manufacture and distribute the games the also fund them giving them the money to pay for wages & tech. they also do a lot of the marketing

[Graycochea]

So, buying off of a store like Origin would be better?

[Fiery Grave]

So, buying off of a store like Origin would be better?

100% better... any digital game is probably going to give the person who made it more money so XBLA and PSN would too

[Silko]

yeah based off my limited experience with games off of origin I'm am going to suggest that NO ONE uses origin. Then again maybe I'm just old fashion and need to have a physical disk in my hands

[Fiery Grave]

yeah based off my limited experience with games off of origin I'm am going to suggest that NO ONE uses origin. Then again maybe I'm just old fashion and need to have a physical disk in my hands

origin wasn't to bad with me, just an EA version of steam... Steam is a lot better though

[Graycochea]

Can't you buy hard copies off of Origin? They just mail you your game I thought.

[Fiery Grave]

never tried that

[Maxdoggy]

Can't you buy hard copies off of Origin? They just mail you your game I thought.

You can do that, yes.