EA Blocks Multiplayer Mode on Used Games XBOX360/PS3/PC

so now to get the most out of a second hand game we need to;

a) buy the game
b) pay for DLC (which is becoming, ever increasingly, integral to enjoyment of original game, occasionally this 'DLC' ships on the actual disc!)

an finally;

c) pay a further £10 to get access to the online element.

absolutely ridiculous, considering how **** poor single player is these days and how little effort goes in to anything other than multiplayer i'm quite annoyed that they want to levy another fee.

if i buy a second hand table do i have to pay the manufacturer a fee to sit at it? no. **** you EA.
 
I could get on board with this if the games were 10 quid cheaper new

And the extra 10 quid was optional.

£30 for a game single player + £10 if you then wanted to go online.

Not likely though is it :p
 
I can see this hurting a lot of people that buy games from highstreet 2nd hand stores because EA won't have it obvious enough that it's going to cost them an extra tenner.
 
Why would the games need to be £10 cheaper new? :confused:

You don't pay if you buy new. It's the scamming retailers who will need to reduce prices by £10 to account for this (not that they will).

R34P3R said:
I can see this hurting a lot of people that buy games from highstreet 2nd hand stores because EA won't have it obvious enough that it's going to cost them an extra tenner.
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This would fall in the remit of the retailer to point this out in the pre-owned section. I hope this ruins their business plans.
 
bloodline76 said:
If they sell online access. Then if you pirate the game (which is free) which normally allows offline play only. If they then charge you to activate for $10 then the games only cost $10.

Get it?
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I would if you weren't wrong :p

On the xbox 360 and Wii, all pirated games can be played online without issue, so they get a fully functioning game for nothing. At least with this system they have to pay $10 to the publisher, better than nothing.

Piracy on the PS3 isn't (afaik) possible.

I imagine on the PC a cd-key system will remain, so pirated copies still won't be able to play online as they won't have a unique cd key.
 
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im actually for this, mgo has this system and it works great.

it should (in theory) reduce the amount of cheat in games as they will have their EA account banned. This will then mean they have to pay another £10 to get a new one, which im sure will make them think about doing it again.
 
doofski said:
Its a crock of ×××× . Just another excuse to get more cash, as we have seen with mw2 on the pc. Tell me where i can download games for my ps3 and get a burner and blueray discs. Piracy isnt worth it on the ps3, its cheaper to buy the game.
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It's nothing to do with the costs of BR discs and burners. You can't pirate on the PS3 because it hasn't been fully hacked yet, it's simply not possible to get a PS3 to boot a burned game at the moment.
 
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was talking about this on another forum.....

This is how it should work ideally.

We purchase product (or license to use product) from EA (via retailer). The rights to play said product pass to the owner. That is, the person who paid for the product. Now once EA has sold that product (licence) for the agreed price they cannot attempt to recoup further sales of the EXACT SAME ITEM. The licence terms and conditions should only be there to protect the digital rights of the developer to stop people from using the product in an illegal fashion e.g. reverse-engineering or copying the product to re-sell)

Treat it as a business transaction. An agreed price has been reached for me to buy and play said product and i am totally within my rights to sell that **play experience*** to another user. How can EA claim that right back if they already sold it to the first user!!!!!!!?

They are attempting to grossly multiple the profits they make based on the amount of users playing the game as opposed to how many new units they sell. But i repeat - EA should not be allowed to claim profit on something they already sold to the first buyer. Otherwise its not buying at all its clearly a lease/rental process. And that opens up a whole new can of worms!

Any of you folks lawyers? Coz this is well out of order. Someone setup a facebook boycott campaign because this cannot be allowed to stand :)



Leasing something and buying something are different things entirely and different legislation applies i'm sure. I'll have to have a close look at the t&cs of one of my EA games when i get home :D

*possibly UTCCRs (unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations)


^^^ basically what i posted.

No chance EA will get away with this. Its a cheek they even think they have a right to the 2nd hand market. Once they sell a product its no longer theirs! Its the person they sold it to (subject to terms and conditions which is where we get down to the nitty gritty on what the owner can do with said product.. whether its a lease or bought etc as im sure different laws apply)


ohh and the piracy excuse doesn't wash certainly not when applied to the PS3 market anyway......
 
I honestly cant see how people can agree with their actions? You don't hear car manufacturers, house builders or any other item that sells on the 2nd hand market whining about resell. You price a game to sell the once, once its sold its the property of the person who bought it.

Piracy? Most of them don't play online, so it wont change much.

It will make their games worthless to resell, meaning the original owners simply wont sell it. I certainly wouldnt buy a game for £40 and sell it for some nominal fee because it was featureless.
 
Surfer said:
No chance EA will get away with this.
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they will, konami have been getting away with it for over 2 years with no (or little) complaints. MGO has thousands of players on it each day with the exact same system as this.

all they have to say is that the online section is a totally different game (which it is really) and you get a free account with the game.

i never really understood how the second hand market has survived this far. I have always found games cheaper online new than second hand in the likes of GAME and GAMESTATION.
 
No chance EA will get away with this. Its a cheek they even think they have a right to the 2nd hand market. Once they sell a product its no longer theirs! Its the person they sold it to (subject to terms and conditions which is where we get down to the nitty gritty on what the owner can do with said product.. whether its a lease or bought etc as im sure different laws apply)
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The online servers are run by them however and then can let on whoever they want!
 
yeah... the FIFA 10 t&cs

"EA may retire online features after 30 days notice posted on www.ea.com or 30 days after the last day of the 2009-2010 football season.

Point is for a game like FIFA online is a major part of the game. How can they sell it, advertising that feature but only the user who buys directly from them (or via a retailer) will be able to freely access it?

They are restricting ever more what we the consumer/buyer of the product (yes it says in fifa10 t&cs that we bought the product) can do with the game.

The slight justification which i feel they can state is that - the online features e.g. servers require a lot of maintenance and support so it was only a matter of time before EA tried to recoup this.

I mean ive certainly had my moneys worth out of FIFA 10 because of online play............ hrmmmm


What might end up doing is creating a new psn id for each EA game and then if i have to sell the game i just sell the PSN account with it? Does that sound like it could work? The person i sell it to would still get online access to it.
 
A disgrace imo, why do games publishers feel they are so different from every other manufacturer? Dont find companies like Panasonic charging you to use your second hand telly, its disgusting!
 
andshrew said:
Because, as usual in so many situations like this, unless they are directly affected by what is being proposed or implemented people don't give a ****.
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If the companies can't compete with used sales then they should compete on price or find some other way to maintain profits, rather than artificially sterilising a second hand product.
 
andshrew said:
Because, as usual in so many situations like this, unless they are directly affected by what is being proposed or implemented people don't give a ****.
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You're right, it doesn't affect me as I buy my games new, but you're wrong to think that people like me don't give a hoot, it's just that I don't see a problem with it.

EA, and all the other publishers who you can be sure are waiting in the wings with similar ideas, are a business out to make money, and why shouldn't they take some of the second hand market?

Not an issue on PC, everyone is used to it, there is no, or very little, second hand market. It'll become common place on the consoles too eventually. What will all of you who hate EA do then, not buy games at all?
 
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