It looks like EA’s Online Pass — described by RPadholic smartguy as “Just a money grab” — is a trendsetter. Ubi Soft will likely implement a similar ploy, which strongly discourages used-game sales. During a recent earnings call Ubi CFO Alain Martinez said:
We are looking very carefully at what is being done by EA regarding what we call the “$10 solution,” and we will probably follow that line at sometime in the future.
It’s funny that this morning I was thinking about how games will get more expensive. I can easily see several publishers adopting their own version of EA’s Online Pass. I understand how it benefits developers and I’m all for that. However, it just makes more money for publishers and makes things more expensive for consumers. That last part…just sucks.
I doubt anyone would pay for that pass.
hey this would mean we would go back to going over to our friends house and playing games such as madden against them, like we use to do. Didn't we ask for this about a week or week and a half ago on a coffee talk topic?
Tokz is right we kind of did. If they noticed that trend I could see some companies pulling what split screen games they have left. That really sucks because some games aren't worth the total cost of gaming (console, internet, xbl, soon to be psn, game) and an extra $10 fee, all because we want to save money.
Devil's advocate:
Games and software are heavily pirated and have been for years. The gaming industry has to see what's become of the once powerful music industry and are doing anything they can to keep from going away. Used game sales and rentals are getting the bum rap because there may be something that can be done there.
Thankfully, we musicians have had the alternative of playing live and selling merchandise. Us live performers are at war with the DJ's right now over venues to play at… but that won't last another 10 years because all those DJ's depend on us to do what they do. They are already getting bored of spinning the same records due to all the mash-ups out there. Within 10 years, people will rather see a live band than hear a DJ… and then the DJ's will have their time again after that… and then the cycle will continue.
@ N8R
Good point but there will always be pirates, other than that I have nothing against your theory. I prefer a live band there is nothing like sharing that energy.
@N8R
Devil's advocate to your advocate
It's impossible to determine whether or not a pirate would have bought the media. Same as if a car thief would actually go buy a car instead of stealing one. Because the person obtained something for nothing doesn't mean you lost a sale. Locks are only for honest people…
If you download a movie…..does that mean you were going to buy the dvd? Not at all. You could perhaps Netflix it, but that isn't a purchase either.
Rentals and friends loaning friends titles of media are what they hate. Piracy isn't even a drop in the bucket by comparison. If you think piracy takes that much money from a company's coffers….I would like to point you towards MS. They seem to be very healthy.