spainlinx0

I'll wait for the library to build up, but I'm starting to change my mind about this not being a good value.

Deftones

I fail to see how anyone could think this isn't a good deal, if they don't ever yank titles out of the vault. For half the price of a full game, you get access to a fuckton of content, which they will continue to add. I hate EA as much as the next guy, but this is a brilliant, brilliant program. I will gladly allow them to take $30 for me once I have the ability to get into the program.

Decker

I'll happily pay $30 for it, but I'm not at all sure it's a "brilliant, brilliant program" at least as far as EA goes. People stopped buying PSN games (and ESPECIALLY Vita games) after the Instant Game Collection was added to PS Plus. Now people will surely stop buying EA games at release (sure Madden and FIFA will sell copies, but expect other franchises like NFS and Dragon's Age to take a big hit in sales, especially on the XO).

Deftones

EA getting money from me that they'd likely never get. Outside of Mass Effect and Dead Space, I haven't purchased an EA game in a long, long time. So, they are getting $30 more from me that they wouldn't ordinarily get.

Draven

I still don't see the value, but the only game on that list I'm interested in is BF4 (which I already own). If I wanted to play it enough to justify the cost of the service, I'd just buy it and play it whenever I like. And at least get some of that money back when I sold it.

fumanstan

I'm sure EA's done the math and projections as far as which gamers are likely to buy right away at full price (store discounts not withstanding), versus waiting for a price drop, versus not buying at all. I actually don't think something like Dragon Age would take a big hit, nor sports games like you mentioned, or even the latest shooter like Battlefield; fans are still going to buy right away, and without knowing when exactly games are going to be available I don't think that many people will wait to play.

mattysemo247

I want to bet that this program has been changing as they go. I think they originally had planned on rotating games in and out, but after Sony said no, they had to change some things to make it look more appealing and to get more people to rally on their side to put Sony in the corner in hopes of the changing their mind.

I do think what they have said so far sounds great. But if it only says on the XB1 platform, I don't see it getting much traction.

What's going to stop Ubisoft from announcing a similar program tomorrow? And how many different subscription programs is too much at some point?

Decker

I think it'll be a tough program to sell to the general public since it's kind of hard to explain the conecpt of the program on a commercial or on a subscription card. PS Plus got almost no traction until it did the "Instant Game Collection" a couple of years ago when they started splashing pictures of Nathan Drake and Sackboy on the side of PS3 boxes -- when it was giving away Mushroom Wars, three dynamic themes and a couple of old PS1 games nobody was paying much attention.

As I've mentioned, despite Sony claiming that the program "wasn't a good value", I think behind the scenes they probably balked at whatever sweetheart deal EA was hoping to get for console exclusivity and/or Sony didn't want to have a service that required a CC# to be on file on the console. They're very sensitive about that after the security breech

Deftones

I don't see how this is a hard sell at all. Are people that stupid they don't know what a subscription service is? Just say it is "The Netflix for games" and people will get what that means.

Dan

*but only EA games. Currently four titles you probably don't care too much about, but we swear we'll be adding more when we're damn well ready, so stop pestering us you dirty daggers, you!



It's more like the Amazon Instant Video of gaming. A subscription covers the catalogue, but you can buy the newer titles if you really want to play them ASAP

As I've said, I think this is a good value, even now. But, in the long LONG run, it needs to be consolidated into a single subscription for multiple publishers. The only problem with EA Access is that EA owns it all to themselves. I want to see Ubisoft, Activision, and indies on there, even if it means jacking up the price, but the service can't be owned and operated by only ONE of the big players.

Deftones

well yeah, obviously they need to make it specific to their brand. Netflix is a brand pretty much everyone in the US knows about. not that hard to make your service sound similar by using that as the basis of any advertisement.

Dan

Prediction!

By 2018:
- Xbox Live Gold will remain as is.
- EA Access will disappear in favour of:
- Xbox Live TITANIUM ACCESS OMG U LOVE US: introduced as the Xbox-specific subscription service. It will encapsulate everything EA is doing with EA Access, but with all the major publishers and some indie publishers on board. It will be double the price of Gold, but hexuple the fun/value/whatever.
- Obama will no longer be president.
- I will be 4 years older.
- I will have more grey hair.

At least 50% of the above will be 100% true.

Adam Tyner

I'd think Netflix would sic their lawyers on EA if they did that. That seems like a pretty clear cut case of misappropriation of trademark (or whatever the legalese would be).

Decker

Playstation Now is much more Netflix for Gamers, at least it will be whenever Sony pull their collective heads out of their asses and make it a subscription service. This is really much closer to PS Plus, but different enough that it might be hard for John Q Videogaming Public to understand. Dan's little disclaimer there was pretty much right on the money.

Play Last Year's Madden Now with subscription! Try this year's version for FIVE WHOLE DAYS!
-- don't know how well that will play, even though I think it's a good value for me (and a great value if you don't already own any of the games)

Deftones

I'm not saying they need to use the Netflix name in the actual promotion. But, if they can figure out a way to say it is a service that is similar to Netflix, then I think people will get the jist of it.

Decker

my WTF Xbox Live email today:

I'm pretty sure I've never spent the equivalent of 1,111 consecutive days playing any game, no mater how much I enjoyed it

Draven

But it's not "Netflix for Games" - it's "One Movie Studio's Subscription Service for Games".

If Netflix showed nothing but movies from one studio, it would never have gotten traction. If Activision and Ubisoft and everyone else adds a $30 service...does anyone really think that's going to work? Seems like Sony has the right idea to not get involved with it.

MoviePage

If they each offer a couple hundred dollars worth of games for $30? Yes.

fumanstan

Seems to me like Deftones was just making the Netflix comparison as a general example, not necessarily a 1 to 1 exactly the same service. And obviously games have more longevity since watching the same 4 movies over and over again doesn't compare to the amount of time people would be playing Battlefield or Madden.

Draven

When you can get most games for $40 within a month or two of release, why is the idea of paying $30 a month appealing to anyone? And especially paying $30 a month to multiple publishers? If 3 publishers get in on this at $30, you've got $90 to spend on games a month. Why do you need a subscription service? You could easily buy 2-3 games per month for that, which seems like more than enough.

The main reason something like Netflix is appealing to me is because it's $8 a month for a metric fuckton of content. Paying nearly the equivalent of a game every month regardless of what's available to play (and restricted to one publisher too) seems like a lot of money to spend on a few games.

I just checked - Battlefield 4 is $27.73 on Amazon. Madden is $22.99. Why not just buy them, play them for two months and come out ahead of throwing $30 a month at a subscription for them?

fumanstan

It's $5 a month, $30 for a year. Not $30 a month.

MoviePage

Yeah, I think someone didn't read carefully.

Music

Probably because he saw it was EA and $30 a month was believable...

Rob V

Well I certainly agree with that

Raul3

Shhh! Draven is buying a subscription now.