Ea to charge for game demos

dafloppyone · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:04

Gamasutra reports that Electronic Arts aims to monetize game demos. According to industry analyst Michael Patcher after an EA investor visit, the publisher will start selling 'premium downloadable content' prior to a game's release for $10-$15 that is essentially a longer-than-usual demo. Patcher said, 'I think that the plan is to release PDLC at $15 that has 3-4 hours of gameplay, so [it has] a very high perceived value, then [EA will] take the feedback from the community (press and players) to tweak the follow-on full game that will be released at a normal packaged price point.' He also made reference to a comment from EA's CEO John Riccitiello that 'the line between packaged product sales and digital revenues would soon begin to blur.'

So I get to pay $10 for a game that completely fails to show me the full range of capabilities of a character, a satisfying story arc, and which might not even be finished?? :-)

Nice :\ Maybe it's just paranoia, but I feel like the days of businesses being innovative to find a way to provide more to their customers is over. Now all the innovation is aimed at getting customers to pay more for less :-(

Kenai · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:14

They did this (or very similar) with Spore didn't they?

You could buy the creature creation part for £5 for a few months prior to the game release IIRC.

billyboyd · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:23

So I get to pay $10 for a game that completely fails to show me the full range of capabilities of a character, a satisfying story arc, and which might not even be finished?? Nice :\ Maybe it's just paranoia, but I feel like the days of businesses being innovative to find a way to provide more to their customers is over. Now all the innovation is aimed at getting customers to pay more for less

Absolutely 100% agree.

Gideon Lorr · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:28

EA is now descending back into the pit from whence it came

FlukeRogi · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:30

Kenai said:
They did this (or very similar) with Spore didn't they?

You could buy the creature creation part for £5 for a few months prior to the game release IIRC.

They did charge for a boxed version, but didn't they also let you just download a version of it for free?..

Charging for a demo (assuming this it what it will be, and doesn't include any extra/prequel content to the full game) is just unbelieveable. As much as I want to believe people won't be stupid enough to go for this, there will always be people who are just plain impatient and will throw their money away.

Stupot_ · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:35

Bah. EA really had an opportunity to get one up on UBI and take the moral high ground with regards to DRM etc.

But they haven't, and now appear just as bad.

Morons.

Jed Shields · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:35

Ridiculous. I bet there's no chance of a price reduction if paying for the demo as well ...

Knubje · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:39

Good move EA, how about you take the one thing that most gamers use to judge a game and consider purchasing as a result and take a massive **** on it?

When you're finished, how about introducing an hourly rate which is charged to the player whilst they are playing the game?

What makes me laugh is that EA are one of the big developers going after piracy and trying to prevent their games being haxed (rightly so), yet give a big middle finger to their customers who are legit, whilst practically encouraging piracy?

Noobs...

platypus · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:40

I cannot understand EA. They've done a lot recently to get their name out of the mud, and then..

tibbsey · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:44

Knubje said:
When you're finished, how about introducing an hourly rate which is charged to the player whilst they are playing the game?

Seeing as you'll most likely have to be connected to the Internet the whole time to play the game, EA might as well just make a system to tap into your PayPal account the whole time, debiting by the hour.

No connection to PayPal? No gameygames.

grudas · 23 Mar 2010 at 16:54

lol.. start charging for mouse clicks ffs :/ idiots.

Evilsod · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:22

I never thought i'd see the day i had to pirate a demo.

AtreuS · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:25

What makes me laugh is that many see this is a pc only problem, not here but in general. Its only a matter of time before ALL games including console games will be "pay per play".

Just look at the World of Warcraft model to get an idea of how lucrative it can be for the company. Zero piracy and total control over your players... a monthly income to show investors and no way people can sell on your games. Ok so you have a black market for in game stuff but frankly thats peanuts compared to the monthly income.

It wouldnt work for all types of games but once they start making "xbox live gold member ship REQUIRED" and so on its just a matter of time before its "£3 a month to play".

Yes the console people would scream at first, but so do innocent virgins when first taken... they soon learn to love it and actually want more!

Kutter · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:28

Evilsod said:
I never thought i'd see the day i had to pirate a demo.

Alex74 · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:30

what confuses me is:

dafloppyone said:
...3-4 hours of gameplay...

This can be more than enough to complete some modern SP releases :confused:

Does this mean games will all have to be of a reasonable length? Or will short ones just get a cheaper demo?

ScarySquirrel · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:31

Kenai said:
They did this (or very similar) with Spore didn't they?

You could buy the creature creation part for £5 for a few months prior to the game release IIRC.

The Creature Creator was free.

grudas · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:32

AtreuS said:
What makes me laugh is that many see this is a pc only problem, not here but in general. Its only a matter of time before ALL games including console games will be "pay per play".

Just look at the World of Warcraft model to get an idea of how lucrative it can be for the company. Zero piracy and total control over your players... a monthly income to show investors and no way people can sell on your games. Ok so you have a black market for in game stuff but frankly thats peanuts compared to the monthly income.

It wouldnt work for all types of games but once they start making "xbox live gold member ship REQUIRED" and so on its just a matter of time before its "£3 a month to play".

Yes the console people would scream at first, but so do innocent virgins when first taken... they soon learn to love it and actually want more!

zero piracy? well no.. private servers with pirated releases..

Kenai · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:33

Alex74 said:
what confuses me is:

This can be more than enough to complete some modern SP releases

Does this mean games will all have to be of a reasonable length? Or will short ones just get a cheaper demo?

More likely it will mean you buy half the game for £10 as the 'demo' and then stump up another £20 to get just another couple of hours gameplay anyway.

Evilsod · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:34

AtreuS said:
What makes me laugh is that many see this is a pc only problem, not here but in general. Its only a matter of time before ALL games including console games will be "pay per play".

Just look at the World of Warcraft model to get an idea of how lucrative it can be for the company. Zero piracy and total control over your players... a monthly income to show investors and no way people can sell on your games. Ok so you have a black market for in game stuff but frankly thats peanuts compared to the monthly income.

It wouldnt work for all types of games but once they start making "xbox live gold member ship REQUIRED" and so on its just a matter of time before its "£3 a month to play".

Yes the console people would scream at first, but so do innocent virgins when first taken... they soon learn to love it and actually want more!

No, what it would do is create a whole new realm of piracy. If you think WoW is pirate free then you're wrong. All you can't do is play on the official servers, to my knowledge its easy to play on private servers. Look at L4D, in theory thats the same as WoW, in practice people play in alternative ways with pirated games.

anything I don't mind · 23 Mar 2010 at 17:35

mw 2 makes over a billion £ and they are still thinking of ways to rip the gaming community off. i was shocked when they wanted to sell a game update for £10. ridiculous.

reminds me of that scene from jurassic park when the fat guy with the beard is talking to the lawyer and he saying how they can sell lunch boxes etc

1 billion dollars!