Sports Games Toy With Pay To Play

Thanks to CNN Money for their article discussing videogame plans for the forthcoming football season, particularly focusing on the fact that "publishers are interested in discovering exactly how dedicated electronic football fans are to the online element." EA president John Riccitiello explains: "The online connected console is a brand new concept. We do not want to set a long term precedent that it's a free benefit, but we don't think we can get paid for the simple act of matching two consumers to play against one another. So what we've been doing is looking at alternatives." According to the article, EA will be trying pay-to-play tournaments (but only in NBA Live for now, not Madden), and the opportunity to purchase downloadable content, as EA learns "what the consumer is willing to pay for."

Re:fu ea

[Mike Hawk]

I don't know if you are guessing about the Xbox Live thing, but from what I hear you are right.

EA and M$ battled it out to see if 1. EA could charge like this (they can since PSO does) and 2. Shut down one year's game when the next year's came out. MS said no to 2.

Holy crap, MS fighting for the consumer! 5th sign of the apocalypse.

Re:fu ea

[neostorm]

Still one of the best systems in the last several years. ;)

Can you say interactive seasons?

[JohnLi]

I knew you could.

Being a New Orleans man, I would like to see the teams stats updated when they are kicking ass in the first part of the season so at least i get some good feelings before they roll over and die around week 9. :)

Re:FUCK YOU EA

[Goldberg's Pants]

Harsh, but accurate. EA are obviously not content with being the Microsoft of the video game world and want to fleece the customer some more. That comment "what the consumer is willing to pay for" is odious. That's outright saying "We're gonna charge the max for EVERYTHING we can until they won't pay no more."

Always knew EA were scum.

Re:FUCK YOU EA

[diospadre]

Do you know how business works? They charge the maximum amount for every product until consumers will pay no more. EVERY business does this. Yes there are sales and monopoly pricing blah bah blah but in the end its all to rake in more profit, not to make the people who buy your stuff feel happy on the inside.

But then maybe you just think that all business are scum.

Re:FUCK YOU EA

[kc78]

I would be willing to pay for a tournament with prizes, I would not be willing to pay for just a head to head matchup. I would possibly be willing to play with updated info, I've always hated the fact that teams wind up being so out of whack from what they're really like in real life. However, I would be kind of bummed to almost be to the superbowl or something with my team in play just to have them nerfed because they suck in real life. lol

Not as bad as it sounds...

[DumbWhiteGuy777]

At first they made it sound really horrible and greedy, but they're really only talking about pay-to-play tourneys, which I would assume would have prizes for the winner(s). So, it would be just like any other pay to sign up tournament with prizes to whoever wins.

Re:Not as bad as it sounds...

[PeeweeJD]

I didn't see anything that mentioned "Prizes" for tournament... They did mention pay for downloads though...

The company also plans to offer consumers the opportunity to purchase downloadable content for its games

I don't think that will fly for roster updates/etc for the sports game... actually, I don't think that will fly with too many of EA's games.... EA thinks that also, that's why they are going to try it with NBA Live instead of Madden...

match entire teams?

[prichardson]

How about instead of matching two players, match two teams entirely made up of players. You could also have a coach player. This brings many more possibilities, maybe even a cooperative game play (run through whatever single player there is with a team made up of real people). Then you could a have a football sim that simulated individual players.

You could even have it almost me MMO like. Have coaches organize teams of real players based on their records. I've never been a fan of sports games myself but I might buy into that. Even better, simulate even more, a sports caster, water boy, but have AI backup for whatever people won't do.

Vote with your wallet

[paradesign]

If nobody pays, EA wont continue it.

I am very discouraged that i have to buy a game and THEN pay to use it. Its like selling someone a computer but then saying "Oh, yea, forgot to tell you, it takes quarters to turn it on, sorry pal."

but then again i dont think EA have made a game worth buying for a LONG time, at least back to the Genesis.

Re:Vote with your wallet

[clarkc3]

but then again i dont think EA have made a game worth buying for a LONG time, at least back to the Genesis.

No one else makes any hockey games that can even come close to EA's line. Football at least had Segasports to compete with it, Hockey not so

Madden wants your money

[August_zero]

Really people, don't get mad, just don't get the game. If nobody is willing to pay the price than they will give up and go back to free.

Sports games fans are a bit looney anyway considering the fact that they pay $50 a year for new rosters and for what is basically the same game as they bough last year. Whats more, the resale value on sports games are terrible.

Now If I was a hardcore Madden fan, and EA offered me a $60 a year subscription to Madden football, that included regular roster updates, add ons and online play. In other words, instead of me having to buy a new version every year, I buy it once and the game gets upgraded/updated continously. That seems more reasonable.

Wait a second, this is EA? forget it they have never been reasonable why should anyone expect them to be now?

Re:Madden wants your money

[dextr0us]

dude, actually, each year has better gameplay, and conversley, worse gameplay. They always tweak gameplay mechanics. EXAMPLE Nfl 2k1 dreamcast kicked ass. nfl2k2 wasn't so great. SAME GAME, different balance.

Objective Commentary

[Tarivus]

I'm not much of a sports gamer myself but I'll try to break this down the way I see it. Back in the dark ages, when Blizzard of America knew what they were doing, I played Diablo2 on Battle.net. This is, of course, free but is plagued by cheaters of all types. Why? Becuase there is simply very little or no incentive for Blizzard to work hard on moderating it. They are not being paid to run these servers and one could even say that they are bleeding cash through them. If a hack comes out, they release a patch and that is even more than they are legally obligated to do. Blizzard could start charging a monthly fee to play on Battle.net but that would drive away a large share of customers that want only online play.

That is Blizzard, let us focus on these sports games now. After beating the computer AI 50,000 times, one may wish to find other players to test their mettle against. Friends are good, online is good when such friends are not around. My point is, unlike these computer based games that would bomb without online features, console based sports games can be played alone or with a local friend and be very enjoyable. If one can have a perfectly good time playing by themselves or with a friend, why not make online play an extra feature?

Now I admit, there are people with no friends, or no friends interested in such games and those people may have to turn to the online realm. The plan proposed here caters to them perfectly because they can play spot matches for free but if they wanted to face the real challange of online tourneys, they have to fork over the cash. While this plan may appeal to the customers quite well, I fear that it would not generate very much revenue. If you check out Yahoo games, you will find that they have a very similar system of "You play free but if you want to play seriously, you have to pay," also, you will find that NO ONE has subscribed to this service.

So what would be the solution? Cash prizes? Online kudos? A sophisticated rating system? No. Those may gather a few people but in the end, the one thing that will really generate cash would be forced payments from everyone who wishes to play online, and this would be unethical in my opinion because the service has set its own precident as a free to play gathering place. Returning to the Blizzard example: there does NOT HAVE to be a server for everyone to play on. It is a gift and complaining about something as minor as paid tournaments is just wasting your breath.

How about two-tiered playing?

[whitefox]

If I was in charge, I would do it this way: free head-to-head playing and an entry fee to compete in tournaments.

For head-to-head play, no stats are kept. You just play against your friends or whomever. This allows new players to learn how to play against real opponents. If expert players are willing to help novices learn, all the better. After all, I won't willingly pay to get my ass handed to me time after time.

But for tournament play (monthly charge), stats are kept on each player along with their rankings, games are scheduled between players with a choice of equal calibar or unbalanced matchups, and the occasional super-tournament can be set up.

I think something like this would be fair to everybody (novice players, expert players & the game companies alike).

Re:How about two-tiered playing?

[Tom Courtenay]

While I don't want to pay to play individual games (I like the Microsoft model), you make some great suggestions.

If pay to play is the only way, then split it in two: One for leisure play, and one for updated rosters, tourneys and extras.

Pay?

[Clomer]

All I'll say is this: I will be very hesitant before I ever pay for online content in a console game. I, for example, am considering getting Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube, but I doubt I'll ever subscribe to the actual online features if I do decide to get this game. There have been enough examples of fairly high-quality online games that are free to play that I don't really see how anyone can charge for anything but specialized situations (such as MMO's).

2 examples come to mind. First is Blizza

How about downloadable NCAA rosters

[cc_pirate]

Right now, for various reasons, NCAA Football doesn't ship with the actual roster names. Instead of me having to manually enter them for the teams I actually give a rip about, it would be nice to be able to download them.