Scheme to fight pre-owned losses not unpopular, firm says
Publishing giant Electronic Arts says consumers are empathetic to its plan to start charging for online multiplayer in certain cases.
The firm is initiating the ‘Online Pass’ scheme in a bid to clamp down on lost margins in the pre-owned market. Many EA games will soon charge customers an additional $10 for multiplayer services on games bought second-hand.
“We thought about [Online Pass] pretty carefully and there hasn't been any significant push-back from the consumer,” EA CFO Eric Brown said, as quoted by Eurogamer.
“I think people realise that if you're buying a physical disc and it requires an attachment to someone else's network and servers, [those] people realise bandwidth isn't free.
“The reception of the program has been positive," he added.
Advertisement
Brown expressed his view last night at the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference in San Francisco. He estimated that the used game market now makes up 20 per cent of total game sales.
“The fact that we're diffusing or covering online costs is not viewed to be unreasonable,” he said.
“We're well into this program and there is no consumer backlash.”
"I think people realise that if you're buying a physical disc and it requires an attachment to someone else's network and servers, [those] people realise bandwidth isn't free."
I'm sorry, that's just BS! Their whole argument is based on the "allocation of bandwidth, and administration of server usage" on a per user level.
The argument fails on the simple premise, that only ONE PERSON can use any ONE PRODUCT at a time. Selling used does not create TWO people, with TWO amounts of bandwidth allocation. It's just PR bull, for corporate greed to hide behind.
If they really want to make an effort, then maybe they should stop fleecing the single player gamer, by making them pay for costs unrelated to that persons gaming experience.
Why should I pay full price, for a game that is reliant on MP gaming, to provide the maximum reward? If I consent to not using the online features, then refund me part of the cost of the new game. And that's where it will fail, simply because they're not interested in giving the gamer value for money. So if they won't give me value for money, then I will use a method of purchase that does.
The simple fact with EA, is their utter contempt for those people who bought their last Fifa bug-fest edition, has ensured a level of distrust. You don't pay people full price for faulty products unless you're stupid. That's something you only get away with once. As a result, I will be buying Fifa 11 used and unless it is a 100% glitch free product, every version after it will be bought the same way.
You're assuming that the person who sold the game would have carried on playing online if they hadn't sold it. That isn't the case.
I no longer play Left4Dead online so the online cost of me owning it is 0. If I sell it and that person goes online the cost goes up.
