Rejoice for on the morrow…BATTLE! Its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry and this week we check out the next pack of DLC headed to 360 for Modern Warfare 2, mark the date for Alan Wake‘s downloadable episode, peruse the resume of Shank‘s writer, lament no new space-buddies in Mass Effect 2‘s Overload DLC, and welcome Onslaught mode to the console versions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
This week we’re all about taking on EA’s Online Pass: pit-fighter style! With the announcement that EA will begin charging gamers who pick up a used copy of Tiger Wood’s PGA Tour 11 (and other titles moving forward) ten bucks to get access to online play, we weigh in on the motives, the money, and what this will ultimately mean for gamers.
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to Call of Duty: Black Ops, Portal on Mac, Fable III, and User Generated Content getting some love with MMO’s
If you’ve got a comment on the show, sound off below, if you’ve got a Battle Cry you want to share, click here and sound off on the latest topic-started post! Stay sharp.
-iPod compatible mp4 download-
Two things: 1. first sale doctrine FTW
2. EA pass sucks for xbox 360 owners who have to pay for Gold membership. There’s so many factors in here that makes it so troublesome; video game development costs are so high; Microsoft charging for online when PS2, PS3, WII, and PC has online for free; some companies use dedicated servers (which EA now plans to have consumers support) and some don’t. These are turbulent times for gamers, but at least Infinity Ward is bringing back dedicated servers.
Speaking of user generated content, how about adding a section to the podcast where you feature the coolest content of the week from different games like from shooters, LPB, Dante’s Inferno, etc. I think it would be really cool for people to know more from other gamers.
I’m BlackHartThaGod and I co-sign this message.
Aren’t activision going to charge for online play for the next COD game Infinity Ward make? Or at least try to…
Speaking of which, I was one of the people that signed the petition for dedicated servers in the hope infinity ward would change their mind. I bought the game cause they said IWnet would be better. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, bought the game. I swear, i will never buy a cod game without dedicated servers EVER AGAIN. So i will buy black ops. If the next activision game uses IWnet, im not touchin it. Fool me once, etc.If i have to pay to play the multiplayer, Im not touchin it.
I hate this direction games are goin! Siiigh
Great Job Guys. I love it. But I have an idea. Why does not Nintendo comes out with two consoles? One for hard core with all the power of an X Box or PS3 and the Wii 2. It would make so much sense but would anyone be willing to have two consoles on the market. Wait, Nintendo already does.
I kept thinking to myself, like car companies, if EA and other developers want a slice of the used game market, why don’t they invest in creating their own store for used games. I mean Toyota has licensed dealerships where used cars can be traded. EA should create their own used game store. That way they get to keep proceeds from used games’ sales without sacrificing the integrity of their games.
Grest show once again Guys !
But you guys are totaly wrong regarding EAs second hand sales and extra charges for second hand users.
I am from Ireland curently living in Germany and we in Europe do not have GameStop or anything like!
Nor do we have big stores like Gamestop trading in second hand Games & if push came to shove I would find it hard to buy a second hand game other than buying it off Amazon.
You Guys need to look more outside of the USA as there is the rest of the world to consider, Population of Europe Vs USA is nearly the same.
EA are doing nothing more than getting more money out of online players, Micrfsoft introduced charing for online play now every developer wants to use this as a tool to screw us.
Was there not a whisper that EA would develop & launch there own Console at som stage?
i think theyve already done the crossplatform competing atleast in some level, battlefield 1943 had the community kills thing that unlocked the new mode and i think skate 3 has an achievement/trophy that will be unlocked once the community has sold some number of boards.
ofcourse its just for bragging rights, but thats all you can do between two rival companies
You guys really deserve we pay 10$ to access your content! lOL SERVER MAINTENANCE!
So stop buying used games then you cheapskates you dont even save more than 5 bucks. I buy new to support my companies i should get stuff. Used buyers have to pay.
I personally think EA’s idea is great. The total cost of used games won’t change, BUT like the people at EBA said, it gives the developer a part of the transaction, which I completely agree with. I would much rather give GameStop $30 and the Developer $10 than the whole $40 going to GameStop. Not that I’d buy a used game at $40 anyways, I use Craigslist…
My battle cry goes out to the death of gaming as I know it. Just when I thought the devil of the gaming world was crowned, ["Mr" Kotick at Activision] EA has once again taken the horned throne. This “Online Pass” is the beginning of the end. What’s next? Single Player Pass? When you force gamers to pay extra money for basic content on a game [i.e. Madden] that isn’t really different from the year before it, it’s giving us gamers the middle finger. If EA is so butt hurt about GameStops profit, why don’t they do something real about it? Why not make a plain Madden game, and charge me $10 a year to update player stats, graphics and such? Or I send them my copy of Madden 10 along with a check for $10 and they send me Madden 11. That way GameStop gets nothing from that transaction. Then EA can take my old copy, and shove it up their f(guitar sound)online ass.
Hey Guys, this is my Battle Cry
I as a former gamestop shopper thought that the used gaming market was the best thing since slice bread
(the game) i thought the 5-6 dollars that i saved on the game was a great thing for me a student who was not employed. But in watching your show over this pass year, my eyes have been opened to the crap that gamestops and others give you for your trade in values (10% back of a 60 dollar game is fucking 6 bucks wtf?) I’ve changed my gaming center to best buy where i can buy a game new, open the plastic myself, and enjoy the gaming goodness.
I agree with Daniel in saying that EA just looks at the pie and if the could, THEY WOULD EAT IT ALL, but it sucks that the people who work on a budget and perfer used games are screwed. Stirr the Pot guys, speak with your fucking wallets, and F*CK BOBBY KOTICK! Cry Havock
My second battle cry (im feeling it today guys, love the show as always) goes to EA’s new “buisness model” i think that if used games sales is such a serious problem to this HUGE companies, then why not partner with the retailers, they already have a psuedo partnership concerning them being able to sell there games, so maybe the shud throw a lucrative buisness deal or support the retailers and in return, get a cut of the used games sales. This is only going to alienate the fans that loved EA (the little that remain) and the products that they produced. This is buisness powered by the GAMERS, without us, they dont make there millions and zillions of dollars. So EA, ACTIVISION (BOBBY KO-F*CK), and all other major companies, please dont alienate us, We only want our Games
such a great morning
About EA and sport online play, i think it’s great idea to charge extra 10 $ for online play if you bought game used so that developer/publisher gets at least some money from used games but here is the deal – most of the EA sport games drops half in price in about 1-2 month and after half year it’s mostly already 10-20$ for new game. So if you are cheapass gamer who buy used game and save max 5$, how about you wait that one or two extra monthes and buy new game half the realease day price?
I buy maybe 3-5 games at release day or preorder them in a year, the rest of the games i want i buy when there is some kind of sweat deal or the games price has dropped. For example, AvP, Dante’s Inferno, Bayonetta, Darksiders, Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2 etc etc, all those games was released on this year’s first couple monthes but now those games have dropped price more than half of it’s released day price. Most of those games got price drop already after one month. So maybe sometimes think about this before you rush to the store to buy game on it’s release day.
I’d have to disagree with the battle cry that says casual gamers wont buy the next Nintendo console. I think that the casual market would go in droves to get the new model just because the Wii is to consoles what the iPod is to portable music devices. Anyone that’s “cool” is going to own one if they have the money, just like those fools buying the iPad.
It will definately be us hard core gamers that will be watching and waiting to see if there will even be enough games that WE like to warrant a purchase. Shit, I think I play more game cube and virtual console than actual new games this generation on my Wii (which has been sitting in dust for a year).
My first ever battle cry
Wow guys what the hell i love this podcast and i love you guys but what is your problem with Gamestop. instead of just blurting “stop buying games from Gamestop” how about you just once think about what you are saying.
we actively talk people out of buying bad games at my store or convince them to hold on to a game they might only get 85 cents for or how about “try that used if you like it return the used copy and get a new one” ect ect we are not all evil trolls!
guys i and 4 other full time employees work at my Gamestop we are not assholes trying to jerk over everyone who comes walking in the door. I work 40+ hours a week get payed pretty well and i get to talk about game’s all day trust me i don’t love everything about my company but it pays rent for my house my car and lets me take care of my family. what the heck would you like to change that does not involve thousands of people losing there jobs and or screwing over a bunch of families? id love to here some suggestions.
PS: i love the show =/
Okay so mentioned in this episode was the fact that we would not continue to buy a used game at the price it is now, if they took out a major component. Well speaking as a mentioned gamer on a budget, what happens when it is a game we really wanted. Because I don’t know about everyone else but I don’t readily have $60 to spend on a game whenever they come out.
OOH! I’m gonna watch this right now!!! YEA!
This push by EA is pretty sly in my opinion. EA Sports comes out with a new version every year anyway and most years the updates seems like something they could’ve done in a patch. I have never bought a used game and probably never will (personal belief to support a good game) but does anybody else feel like this is a low blow tactic that will open the door for other forms of ridiculous charges. Seems like every other month there seems to be some sort of new payment model and charges announced.
I actually live in Australia and we have no Game Stop over here so what i know of them is what i hear from the show or other internet sources. Now i don’t agree with how they are making those ridiculous profit margins but does the gamer that buys a 2nd hand copy of a game own it any less then the owner who brought it brand new? Why punish the thrifty gamer who wants to get more bang for his buck. No other industry does this.
What happened to the days where u could buy a game and it was yours. One of these days i can see it now, u wont even be able to buy a game but be forced to rent it for its shelf life.
The online component of the game is an extra feature i understand, but should gamers really be paying more for a component game developers put in to be competitive? If you need to charge more because of raising game production costs, fine charge me more and let me keep my full ownership of said game. Don’t go around bumming a few dollars off me every now and then guilt tripping me for something i already paid for. (Except MMOs, its a whole different ball game)
I understand some of the concerns about this whole EA thing, but personally it doesn’t affect me (I don’t play online much (despite having Gold), and I pretty much always buy my games new unless it’s some really, really old title no longer available elsewhere. I completely understand the reasoning behind EA’s initiative. Gamestop sells 20 copies of a used game, possibly the same copy multiple times. That’s immediately 20 copies EA gets no money for, since the store is not ordering more. The consumer gets to play the full game, the publisher gets no sales for it.
Over here in Finland it used to be that used games were a tiny section of a game store. They had rows and rows of new games, and a small shelf for a few used games. These games were considerably cheaper than new copies, and you usually couldn’t even find used copies of very new releases since no one was dumb enough to trade in games because they get so little for them.
Now that Gamestop is even here in Finland, people bring in two day old games despite getting very little for them, and Gamestop has more used games than new copies. Of course it’s a problem, since they’re overdoing it. And it’s been going on for ages in the Us and other countries.
Personally I don’t think the “gamer” is screwed with this. You buy the game new, you get everything along with it. That’s not changing. You buy a used copy and want to play the game online, then I feel it’s only fair EA gets something for the game.
Now, of course there’s people worried what all this will eventually lead to. I think what Activision is doing is far more worrying. They are actively proving raising prices for the sake of it and overcharging for small additional content packages is very viable.
My response is video response which i hope we can see more video responses like we use to see in the past.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOnZ_upCwrA
Community watch and tell me how you feel if it is the right way i presented or did not. i like constructive criticism if it is properly used. Hopefully us gamers can agree on a topic in the comments if you feel you do not like what i have proposed for EA to go about business.
Agree, we need to think what will be better for us – gamers and we need to think it now not after yeart or two when it will be too late. So I see now 2 ways they trying to get more money:
1) publisher actually rises prices year after year (Activision way) and gives ridiculous DLCs overpriced
2) or the other way – they actually trying to encourage people to buy new game (they get money from new game sales) and give full experience from the start and even give some additional free of charge content and try to get some money from those who buy game’s used copy.
You need to realize that they don ‘t limit in any way you if you buy new copy. About the first way of getting more money, who will stop them to rise price next year and to sell 5 maps for already 20$ because they see 15$ price didn’t stop the sales. Eventually you will get new games price something about 100$ and they will say they don ‘t get enough money and will want to rise the price more.
I say let’s try to keep the new games price limit as it is now and let them find ways to get money from the used game copy sales.
As i already said previously, you don ‘t have to rush to store to buy game at it’s launch day. The game won ‘t be less good if you buy it after 1+ monthes when the price will be more suitable for you.
Why dont they just charge $70 for a game? People won’t want to worry about troublesome codes. This could hurt EA. Why don’t we just all buy our games off amazon.com?
Also……if all the ps3 fanboys got in a fight with the X-bots, we all know who would win…..
Great EBC I really enjoyed your debate about EAs online pass. Whilst I understand EAs motives, in my view EA are forgetting one simple thing with this entire system.
Games already cost a lot of money.
There are a lot of gamers out there on low-incomes and the ONLY way they can afford to buy a new game is to trade in something they already own.
I used to do this myself when I was a student. I would buy one new game a month, but I had to EBAY the game I bought on the previous month to afford it.
We all know that publishers make most of their cash in the first month so with this move there will be a domino effect as gamers will be offered too little for trading in games which have this online pass, and thus won’t be able to afford to buy new.
In short I believe in the longterm the
Online Pass = LESS new game sales.
If the prices for new games were around the same as Blu Ray then I think people would buy more new and the 2nd hand market would shrink. They should be dropping retail prices not artificially increasing them.
About BC2 and coop DLC. Im PC gamer (i play only clan wars in BC2) and i dont think we need this DLC so care what we need is patchs to fix the f.. game. Thats why i dont feel that we are left behind again (in this situation).
As much as I respect Mr. Pachter’s opinions I have to agree with EBC %100. EA online shenanigans might equate to greater profits for publishers in the short run, but it’s going to hurt the industry down the road.
Gamers unite! The future of our hobby depends on us.
Uh, no. Activision and Treyarch are bringing back dedicated servers. Infinity Ward is probably slowly dieing…
Uh…no. Activision and Treyarch are bringing back dedicated servers. Infinity Ward is probably slowly dieing right now…
Greetings form germany to all axeheads out there. In my opinion Gamestop will not adjust their prices for PO-Games because EA charges 10 bucks for Online-Multiplayer. That would make them seem week and give EA leverage. I worked part-time at gamestop here in germany, over here their not really relevent at the moment, and i’ve come to know that they don’t care for anybody. Not their employees or gamers. And definetly not for EA! Gamestop is only interested in one thing: THEIR PROFIT! So it’s a nice thought to think about gamestop dropping prices, but there is no way in hell that that is going to happen. On the day that would happen Brent would win american idol and project runway, daniel would go bald and stop dropping puns and tony well he’d probably stay the same.
I personally don’t see that EA’s Online Pass is going to affect Europe a great deal. Since the extra $10 is only charged to people who buy the game used; and since (as you point out) GameStop is less present in Europe than North America, then there are far less people buying it used in Europe and therefore far less people will be charged the extra $10. So I don’t think its accurate to say EA is gouging all online players; just players who bought their copy used.
As far as looking outside the U.S. goes, we do try to cover a wide range of things and have talked about European-specific topics in the past. Its just difficult to tackle those subjects because of all the research we have to do since we don’t have the benefit of first-hand knowledge and experience like the people living there. Thanks for checking out the show!
First up, I really hope you and other GameStop employees working at the retail level know that none of our criticism of GS in any way is directed at you. People like you don’t make the policies and you aren’t responsible to answer for them.
Speaking for myself, here is my problem with GameStop in a nutshell: They are doing harm to gaming. The used-game buy/try/return system seems like a great value for gamers (and for a while it was) but times have changed. DLC pricing, exclusive content, new purchase incentives, and EA’s online pass have all happened largely in response to the massive used-game market created by GameStop and publisher’s dissatisfaction with not being able to profit from that model.
Those things are driving up the overall price of games and introducing ever more complex and frustrating issues for gamers…largely because of the massive used-game market created by GameStop.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m equally frustrated by the game companies that have decided the only way they can sleep at night, knowing GameStop is out there, somewhere, raking in money, is to charge $15 for five MW2 maps. But that doesn’t excuse GS from giving people paltry value on trade-in games then turning around and selling them for at or near full retail price.
Both models do nothing but screw over gamers.
What do I want to change? I want you to go to college; major in business; meet a friend who wants to get into venture capital. I want you to go into a room full of investors and drop a presentation that makes a Steve Jobs keynote look like a kindergarten talent show. I want you to start a retail chain of game stores that approaches the game industry and offers to cut them in for a piece of the action on used game sales. Not because they deserve it (which they don’t) but because its lucrative; because it will drive publishers to offer crazy deals and promotions for gamers to come shop at your chain; because it will upset GameStop’s behemoth standing and force them to compete with better prices, better value, and more consideration for how their policies affect both gamers and gaming itself. The two companies carry on, constantly trying to one-up each other with better promotions, better trade-in rates, better service in order to entice customers. Gamers win; families are fed; balance is restored.
That’s what I want. Let me know if you’re game.
Thanks for watching!
I never buy used games. Probably never will, unless it’s something out of print. I see is a lot of people buying a game, then he/she plays the shit out of that game for 1 week. Then trade it in to get the next release in line for that month. And it never ends, the cycle repeats itself over and over. I don’t understand some peoples need to play every single game that hits the market.
And this hurting gamers on a budget DK, I disagree. I myself is unemployed and been so for quite some time, what I do is to buy smart. I want both RDR and Alan Wake, but I can only buy one of them this month. So I decided to get RDR and put Alan Wake on hold, till I can afford it or it drops in price. The game isn’t runing away. I do this all the time, and it has served me very well.
Whats up (from Scotland) my highlanders of hurt, my celts of carnage.
My 10p worth about the pricing of games….I think there is always going to be a problem with game pricing. This is the only entertainment industry that has ended up with a large, and profitable, secondhand market, compared with films, DVD’s, books and music. Due to high prices for console games (and consoles), gamers have gotten into the habit of playing and trading games, so to a degree companies & gamers brought this on themselves.
Its a fair cop guvnor, after all, I’ve just finished Batman AA (bought new on day of release) a second time on PS3 (for a platinum). Now the game has no further value to me, so why not trade it in?. I really enjoyed the game, I bought all the DLC that has been released, but I’m not likely to play through it a third time now.
Whatever happens to pricing, its going to be extreme, and its going to be un-popular, until gamers and companies find a way to break old habits.
For example, if games were sold as demo’s for £15 (normaly £40 to £45 here in UK), but online, you got to ‘unlock’ the game for another £20, that would be the customer quids in having saved £5 on the overall cost of the game, and the developer in for a percentage of the game sale AND the online payment. I realise everyone is not online though, but you could use a premium text charge or phone line charge to ‘open’ the game up.
Subscription has been talked about. Take MAG – £40 new and free to play so far with 2 free updates. What if it cost £10, you paid £10 to set up a character account (you could play the low training map without it), but then £2 per month – thats £12 to the developer in the first month.
I know Sony doesn’t have the market share it once did, but surely a deal can be struck with say Sony and developers that would allow any ‘game fees’ to be taken through the PSN.
By giving a better deal to the customer, and utilizing online networks, 2nd hand game sales can be reduced AND developers can get in revenue per game sold. It wont be popular, and no doubt you guys would bitch about it, but someone needs to take one game, and try selling it 3 ways, and see how it comes off, so premium price, but free DLC, for Xbox360 hard copies, and a half and half price for part download game on PSN.
Just my 10p’s worth.
this whole ea discussion is so fucked up
he said this only from a financial point of view because it’s his job
1.If people are dumb enough to pay 50$ for a used game at gamestop it’s their own fucking problem
2. there is no other market I can think of which gets anything from the used sales
3. if everyone would do the same as ea there would be no ebay
4.pay 10$ for playing online is not realy better than paying 15$/month for wow because there offer way more service than ea with this yearly sports games
5.If buy the game used the amount of online gamers stays the same because the other person sold their copy xD
7.I don’t think gamers or even developers are getting anything back from this deal with the devil
6. stop hating pachter
No way Gamestop are lowering the prise of used games with 10$, not in this world. They’ll lower the prise with 5$ and they’ll say – We’re doing this for you, guys. It’s not we who rip you off.
This whole online [p]ass thing is very reminiscent of what the music industry is pursuing here in the UK with the ‘Digital Economy Bill’. To briefly explain the new law, if you are caught using torrent sites or p2p file sharing to download copyrighted material – music, films and of course video games etc – your ISP has the right to reduce or completely cut off your internet connection. Now, as a musician I am opposed to the bill because I don’t really care if people steal my music, as long as they are listening to it. Of course it would be nice to make money from it but it wasn’t the reason I created that work of art in the first place, which I know is the general consensus among serious musicians. This sentiment seems to be completely lacking in the video game industry (which is maybe why the medium of video games has struggled to be taken seriously on it’s artistic merits but that’s another discussion). The big publishers take no pride in having created a quality piece of work and don’t care for people actually playing their game. I suppose you could consider this a battle cry albeit a long rambling one.
alunfennell is not correct. In germany there are almost 300 gamestops. There are 7 gamestops in munich at the moment and numerous smaller stores where you can get po games.gamestop is in every european country except great britain. and in every city even in the smallest towns there are shops where you can sell and buy po games.
@Brent If you guys need some form of correspondens from over here in germany email me and i would gladly give you info.
hehe you are wrong, there is no gamestop in Latvia (that’s where I live), Estonia and Lithuania. Those are already 3 European countries and i can bet there is no Gamestop in most of eastern and southern European countries.
For example in Latvia, we maybe have only 1 or 2 shops selling only just games and consoles and all those games are way too overpriced in those shops (new games cost about 80-90$) so we better order games from UK, US or even Asia (for example play-asia.com etc).
Good morning guys,
Great show as always.
I have a simple battle cry this week. It goes out to the developers of any game using motion control. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put an option in to use normal hand held controls. I’m an old school gamer and don’t need to dance around my living room to get a kill, hit a hole in one or drive a car. I hit the gym 4 days a week, so I don’t need the extra exercise. Basically, I love games..I love all types of games..I own a XBOX 360, PS3 and a Wii..I don’t understand why Sony and Microsoft feel the need to follow Nintendo, but it would be great to have the option to use a normal controller and not hit my wife in the face while playing golf or going in for the kill. I also think having this option would make games more user friend as I’ve found many decent games just have crappy controls due to the movements it expects from the gamer. I’m not saying to drop motion control…just make it an option. BTW, I will give Madworld props for the best motion control.
LOL!!!! LET´S TEAR IT THE FUCK DOWN!!!! xD
YES!!! Finally one of the three amigos of assault express what i think! THANK YOU BRENT!!! Im refering to his point that why do devs and publishers always think of revenue instead of decreasing costs!! When you do that, the revenue also goes up, hell you might even lower the price of games and still have the same revenue margine. What Pachter said, that its a brilliant move, fair enough and in a way he is right. BUT THAT DOESNT MAKE IT RIGHT!!
The plan with the token that EA is doing for their sportsgame do sound like a bad thing, but only if you look at it for a short term.
In the long run more income (cause it’s income, all the server maintance is BS) means more investments (and they will make more investments, them being a company that is pretty much obligated to invest money, in contrast with the idea that some might have, EA having a big tower filled with money they swim around in, Scrooge McDuck-style)…
Anyways, so more investments means more money going to the developers, means more money for new projects, which will result in happy gamers…
The problem, and this is a global thing, not just game related, is that people tend to forget to think in long terms. What only seems to matter is how much money is in my wallet at this very instance. That’s also why the worlds economy is making a belly flop.
but I’m not a economist, so what do I know…
ow, and these token ideas companies are having will only be around for a short time, with digital download becoming more and more real every day.
Hey there from Germany,
great show, always glad when the new episode is out.
My BattleCry goes out to well..you
I agree with you guys most of the time, but I have to say, regarding the “EA 10 bucks” issue I have to disagree.
In my opinion games are just a software license you buy not a product like a TV set. Compare it to Windows or Anti Virus programs. Those products also protect their rights when it comes to multiple sales. They do it with CD-Keys or license buys in the first place. I think it is EAs right to “defend” their IPs in every way they want(As long as the law is followed). It is up to the consumer to decide if it is worth the buy. If I buy a used car from a third party I do not get the full service I would get if I bought it from the manufacturer or their licensed sales partners. My warranty is not in the hands of VW or BMW anymore, but it lies with the one who sold me the car, not the manufacturer, at least the law in germany says so. Why should EA do otherwise? Take my example and compare it to the servers: If GameStop is selling me the license shouldn’t they be the ones maintaining the server? That wouldn’t work, so EA is charging for the second hand sale a fee. Yeah it pisses the gamers off, but as you say: Speak with your wallet.
Anyway, show is great keep on and a healthy discussion is way better than none.
I do not know where in Germany you are currently, but in the western Frankfurt area (yeah hailing from there…can I say hailing as a german? doesn’t matter) I know two quite big and very well doing GameStops. And even the MediaMarkt and Saturn (Our Best Buy or any other big electronics store) do this of late.
Sorry for any grammar or misspelling issues.
Fab
Ultimately I think this move by EA WILL hurt the consumer, because Gamestops not going to eat this one, if the prices of the EA games they are selling has to go down, then the price they buy EA games at will go down the same amount. Afterall they do get their games off of the consumers primarily, so either one of 2 things is going to happen, either people are going to sell their games to Gamestop for a song or Gamestop is cutoff from making profit off of EAs game library because noone in the right mind would sell a new EA game for as cheap as Gamestop will want to buy it for.
Great show, once again.
My battle cry goes out to video games and their endings. Over the past few years we have come to see single player games deliver story driven experiences. (Which is obvious not doing as well as multiplayer) [Sigh]
Anyway, in recent games I’ve played that focus on the story, never seem to deliver on one thing: their ending! Games always seem to have these incredibly short endings that lack any feeling that it was worth it. When I play a story driven game, I expect to have an ending that lasts longer than, oh lets say… 30 freaking seconds! (Yeah, Alone In The Dark (2008) knows what I’m talking about. Producer Nour Polloni can talk some s**t about an exciting finale).
Questions are left unanswered and using a so-called ‘cliff hanger’ is not an excuse! What if a sequel never happens or is not followed up in less than 2 years? [cough] Half-Life [cough] Because by then, the gamer has moved on [cough] Left 4 Dead [cough] (Only joking, L4D was kinda meaningless and dull, personally).
Ultimately, the game feels unfinished to me and you want to know what happens next, ‘what about the characters? How did this happen? Who’s he? What am I doing here? Is this a game?’ Those kind of questions.
It pisses me off! [Breathe in and out]
(NO SPOILERS) Heavy Rain is a good example of answering THESE types of questions. The ending consists of short 1-2 minute clips of what happens to each of the characters individually and what they have been doing throughout the game. The case was literally closed. No sequel is needed to answer them.
Don’t worry Daniel, Mass Effect tried… (No, in honestly, for a game I didn’t really enjoy, the ending was perfect as a good way to continue the story… even if my favourite characters didn’t survive).
seriosly, its not greed if you want games like mass effect then you need to pay up, seriosly dont blame ea for wanting their money, amd them perhaps they dont need to fire so many people.
That Polamalu photoshop of brent was absolute effing gold.
Just wanted to take the chance to say a big Thank You to Brent, Daniel and Tony. I think not one of you realises how much your show means to so many people. You no doubt recieve lots of thank you emails but i just want to say that as somebody who for various reasons is forced to spend a lot of time alone, downloading your show and watching it on my PS3 has for a long time now felt like i was inviting three close friends into my living room.
Your show is informative, entertaining and above all else, it maintains a feeling of personality that i just can’t find in other shows like Invisible Walls. The three of you are obviously good friends and it shows because the banter you deliver in each show is usually pure gold.
So without pissing in your pockets too much, thank you guys and thank you to everybody else who helps maintain EBA. Your show is one of the highlights of my week.
Also just want to quickly point out that there are ZERO gamestops in Australia as far as i am aware, and i have lived on both sides of the country, west then east.
Our “GameStop” stores are known as “Electronics Boutique” here, or EB Games, and i’m not sure if you have that company in America? But they are doing the exact same thing.
Yesterday i was in EB games and i saw a used copy of Modern Warfare 2 for $120. I am not kidding, and i stood there in front of the staff and took a picture on my mob phone. They asked me what i was doing and i told them i just wanted to be able to look at this later to make sure i hadn’t imagined it. $120 is what Modern Warfare 2 cost when it came out in Australia, and EB games are still charging that for second hand copies. Why? Because they can. Because its a popular games and some foolish people will pay that. It is atrocious and i am making an effort to buy all my games from K-Mart from now on.
@Anon
Thanks for the kind words sir, its our pleasure. As for EB Games, we do indeed have those in the states, though GameStop purchased them several years ago; we had an EB nearby that is now a GameStop.
As for charging full price for a used game? I wish I could say its shocking…but its not. And they’ll continue to do it as long as people validate that practice by purchasing those games from them.
As always, thanks for watching!
Hey, I’ve been a listener for a while, fan of the show, but a first time…Crier.
(Apologies if I’m doing it wrong, I’m commenting here because my battlecry isn’t about the EA thing)
I’d like to say I think game developers should consider the value of life in their fiction and, by extension, stop throwing hundreds of disposable henchmen at the protagonists.
If you’ll pardon my shameless self-promotion, I wrote about it in excruciating detail here:
http://grimlyenthusiastic.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/the-value-of-life-in-video-games/
Oh, and you guys need to play Alan Wake!
My Epic Cry go to Sony’s Agency, on Facebook ^^
A spy mmo, is just what the world need. The game do look good… So no question there ^^ But… You barely here about the game… Unless you Google you way to the few news there are online, about the game.
So to get the hype up for the game. Sony created a Browser Game on Facebook. And everything you see and play in that browser game. You will play in the real game. The Browser game is called: The Agency Covert Ops. And it can be found on The Agency’s own site on Facebook… Here…
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Agency/11229097734
I’m now really Hyped for the game ^^ And can’t wait to play online on my pc, with PS3 owners
PS..: I have listen to you sins Skirmish 1… So BIG FAN
Hey guys, don’t have time for a battlecry, but quick touch on an issue from the end of the episode. Nintendo at the moment is at a low point on the gamers list because of their lack of serious games. But try to imagine how many serious gamers in the world there are, then find out the % of 6 billion that is. Serious gamers are a rare breed, and ones who can afford the criticly acclaimed, quality games on a weekly basis are even rarer. I think Nintendo would be smart, for now at least, to stick with the casual gamer theme they have and only release a handful of serious games a year that are epicly great. Then with their next system, make that a serious gaming machine, but continue making and supporting more casual games for the wii. Any way, just an idea. Love the show, keep it up.
hello my demon-lords of decapitation, my friars of fornication (a.k.a f “insert bleep here” ing), how are thou ?
my battlecry goes out to the ps3, i find that the ps3 isn’t getting enough love.
every single trailer for a multi-console game i’ve seen ended with the xbox 360 logo, or without a logo, the ps3 isn’t even mentioned.
i can understand that microsoft with its butt-load of money under bill gates his bed, can buy all that promotion but why doesn’t the ps3 get some love.
also the ps3 doesn’t have enough private games, xbox 360 has a ton of them, even with downloadable content, the xbox 360 is always first.
so hereby i cry out to sony, microsoft and game developers world-wide, forget the xbox for a sec and focus on the ps3.
DK said something in this episode (26 mins ish) that made me think what EPC could really become.
EPC could become THE channel for gamers to raise their voices and be heard.
Cut the crap and tell the developers/publishers exactly what we think is bullshit and what we think is brilliant.
This is what we need. I know only too well that money talks, so if I don’t agree with something I don’t buy it. eg IWNet in MW2.
The problem lies with the vast numbers of people who are new to gaming and don’t have the experience we do and don’t realise how much better things can be or rather how much better things were.
Their money is always going to outweigh ours and drown us out.
EBA could become the place that amplifies the voices of us gamers who really give a damn about the medium and want to see it become the best it can be and not the CASH COW it’s becoming.
Another great episode, <3 this show.
Here comes my first battlecry!!!!
I totally agree with you guys about the ea online pass, i don't buy second hand games because I'm all about supporting the devs. If i did someday buy a second hand game someday i would like to get the "online side of the game" for free. This is just so they can make more money and blame the F(guitar sound) on server maintenance(OMG). This is total bs and I'm kind of afraid they will get away with it. I just read that Ubisoft is following the same path as EA, like the DRM disaster wasn't enough.
Best regards from a EBA listener.
My EBC goes out to EA and the whole Online pass issue.
Firstly let me address some misconception made by some people on this site regarding this issue.
On the Podcast Tony mentioned that this move will definitely drive down the used game price as people will not want to pay the same price for a used game as now they have to fork out an additional $10 for an online pass. This might be true to some but there is no way we can say that for everyone out there. We cannot forget the people who only want to play the single player and also the people who will view this $10 as justifiable or affordable and will still pay the same price.
But back to the important point, and that is it is not whether or not people will buy the used game at the same price per se , but rather to what extend does this move affect the revenue of gamestop. If this move from EA doesnt affect the demand for used game at the Current price then there is not reason for Gamestop to reduce the price of those used games. IT IS ALWAYS ABT REVENUE.
DK was right to say that this is EA wants a piece of the pie in the used game market and that is exactly right. But the important thing here that ppl dont understand is WHY they are pursuing this strategy and that a near to no cost profit of $10. Let me explain , now the the other alternative to have that share of the pie is to enter the market directly which is deal with used games themselves. If they did that (assuming they dont break the law and have price setting with gamestop) it will in theory push down the prices of used games which is around 15- 20 atm? The $10 which they set is no magic number that popped out from nowhere, they done their research and i believe from there they believed that if they entered the market it will in the long run push prices down to near $10 BUT the difference in tstartegy is that without even entering the market (which will definitely be more costly) they can earn a pure profit of $10 and that is the WHY.
Because of EAs shrewd strategy , it complicates possbile solutions, Assuming the solution is to lower the overall cost of used games (price + pass) now u have to “attack” both EA and gamestop at the same time. By boycotting gamestop you Might only manage at best to make them lower the price of their used games (and that is limited by what price they buy their used games), now the real problem is because EA did not enter the market directly you have to “attack” them through other avenues on their company, which is affect their revenue from other sources which is new games and that would require pretty big sacrifices by gamers. But just to point things out if you expect used games to lower to original cost and you are a hardcore online person, that is very unlikely to happen.
So to sum it up , how this thing plays through will rely on how gamers will react to this it may very well be the case that both gamestop and EA will continue as usual and getaway with this if gamers continue to pay as usual. Remember Revenue is the key to understanding companies and only when that is affected then tey will react if not you can bet they wont.
Again on the EA issue, it’s interesting how this is generating a lot of discussion, but PC games have been doing this for ages with their CD-keys and such. Most stores simply don’t accept used PC games because they don’t want to guess whether it comes or doesn’t come with a CD-key or some other kind of verification system.
It should also be noted Sony is already doing this with PSP games, like ModNation Racers just recently.
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2010/05/19/%E2%80%98heads-up%E2%80%99-playstation-store-update-19th-may-2010/#comment-75270
Hardly anyone even notices (which probably says something about the game’s sales
)
[...] Redemption). It certainly wasn’t my intention to revisit this topic, but after listening to this week’s episode of EpicBattleCry, I feel as though I have to. It is just that important. The implications of this [...]
Hello Brent, Tony and Daniel (and everyone else)
I’d like to throw a battlecry towards most of the gaming companies, developers and designers out there today – and why they dont use us, the gamers, as a part creating or polishing games. Over the past two years or so I’ve seen alot of games, many big names, who have been a major dissapointment. By that I mean that I and several of my friends have played a game, enjoyed it or not (doesnt really matter) and experienced the gamecontent and found things we could have changed that would have improved the game alot. I can refer to games such as GTA IV, Assassins Creed, Modern Warfare 2 and Age of Conan (just to name a few) which was great in many ways, terrible in other ways. My point is that I think the people behind games, especialy sequels, have a tunnelvision of how the a game “should be” and loose track of what really made/makes the game so great in the first place. They also fail to see the game through the gamers eyes and emphasise the right elements of the game without taking it to far. I think gamedevelopers, designers and so on would benefit greatly from using dedicated gamers who live and breathe for their type of game to give them feedback in the development of a game, not just for fixing errors in a beta. I mean, whats the worst thing that could happen for a company who would do this? They get feedback they dont like and reject it.
My second battle cry goes out to my stupidity on the online pass issue. My intital anger of having to pay extra money for online content, and my overall disapproval for EA’s business plans, blinded me to one simple fact of the Online Pass.
It isn’t going to work.
Everyone knows that they are implementing the online pass to take away business from GameStop. Some have pointed out that GameStop will lower the prices of EA sports games to cover the difference of the Online Pass. What most people don’t see is that GameStop doesn’t have to. And they probably won’t. They know that the average consumer is an naive parent, and will only see that a used copy is $52.99 compared to $62.99. When their kid tried to go online, they will just buy them the pass to shut them up.
Final thought: You think GameStop only makes money from EA Sports games? They won’t lose a wink of sleep from a few thousand copies of Madden not sold. They don’t care as long as their pillows are stuffed with gamers hard earned dollars.
since last week tony gave us the lemonade song to stay in our head id figure we could enjoy the wow version too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URR–H97sYQ&feature=related …not too bad
go ahead an say I’m stupid but, were (or how) do i get the “sweet ass gog action”, not on my e-mail or do i look somewhere else. . . i’m a little late but i’ve been playing red dead redemption, please help i would appreciate it
[...] the recent announcement of EA’s Online Pass. Obviously, we tackled quite a few angles during this week’s Skirmish of the ole’ EpicBattleCry, but as mentioned on the show, we’re now opening the floor to our community as we attempt to [...]