| A new Fight Night - coming soon |
In a conference call yesterday, as reported by Gamespot, EA COO John Schappert appeared to announce unintentionally that a new version of the popular boxing franchise is planned. In addition, it was also announced that EA plans to charge gamers $10 to unlock basic online features.
Less welcome [news in the conference call] to buyers of used games was Schappert's explicit confirmation that the new title--along with every other major EA Sports game--will require the just-announced Online Pass to play on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. "EA Sports titles including Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NCAA Football, Madden NFL, NHL, Fight Night, and MMA--Mixed Martial Arts--will feature Online Pass," the executive told analysts.
The report on Engadget didn't hold back with an opinion on the news
Well, we're really hoping this doesn't take off, but the most unfortunate aspect of this diabolical scheme is we really don't see how this could possibly hurt EA's bottom line. Sure, it's evil, but that's never stopped them before. |
While the announcement of a new Fight Night (even if EA did so accidentally), is a welcome one. That said, the "Online Pass" announcement is a much less enthusiastically received development. Used game sales must frustrate game publishers, but are a perfectly valid way of purchasing games for many. Worse still, it prevents a gamer who has already paid their money to buy the game from passing it on to somebody else - whether that be a family member, a friend - without restricting the available features. Whether that be restricted to basic online gameplay or other things like downloadable rosters and other content is at this time unknown. Note the official description of the 'Online Pass' is that it "gives you access to online features and bonus content for your game". This raises additional questions such as whether the current proliferation of DLC for a game will be curtailed - what will and won't be included as part of the "Online Pass" ?
For the retailers it is equally depressing news. Many stores already rely heavily on used game sales for a significant proportion of their sales as the move towards more digitally based content affects in-store sales.
It's hard to see how publishers who are making a profit on their games already, could justify throwing in an extra $10 charge arbitrarily. |
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