EA Sports Season Ticket: Smart, Ballsy and a Really Tough Sell - ChaseB's Blog

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EA Sports Season Ticket: Smart, Ballsy and a Really Tough Sell Stuck

Posted on August 2, 2011 at 10:44 AM.

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By now the news is breaking everywhere about the EA Sports Season Ticket program. Peter Moore, the president of EA Sports, has posted the info on his blog, and the EA website has all the info on the game. We also posted a synopsis of what the program includes earlier today.

It really is a different take on how to do things. People can debate the legitimacy of the program or who it is serving, but it is absolutely different. When speaking with Andrew Wilson, the senior VP of worldwide development at EA, he spoke about two types of gamers that would find a use for the membership.

The first sect of folks were "people that were going to buy the game anyway and would love the opportunity to get it three days early," said Wilson. The other sect of gamers were those "that always thought they might like to try a certain game but just never really got over the hump of going to buy it at retail."

At the end of the day, I feel like that "getting over the hump" portion is mostly irrelevant. Folks have plenty of ways to play a game before buying it. It can't hurt to give folks another way to play a game -- and, to be fair, Wilson was purely pointing out this particular portion of gamers as those who already bought into the program and were just trying out a game because they can -- but it's probably not going to lead to much in terms of extra sales for EA.

However, it's hard to put a price on early access when it comes to certain gamers. You can call it a lack of willpower, but some folks will pay a lot of money to play a game early. If certain gamers know a game is out there at retail already, having been shipped in advance of its planned release date, they will go to insane lengths to procure that title before its launch date. They will even pay exorbitant amounts of money to do so in some cases.

In other words, the early access EA is providing here could be considered exploitative or an act of charity. Spending $25 for a year's worth of perks will save some folks from spending $100-plus on eBay's black market to get a game a day before it is actually released. On the other hand, EA also realizes people are spending money to get games early, so why not just come to the actual drug maker for the fix and cut out all those pesky middle men.

(In fact, it almost seems like a form of brinkmanship when it comes to competitive sports gaming. If you know someone is out there playing the game early, are you going to fall behind or pay the fee and get the game early, too?)

This program also really comes into focus when considering the fact that everyone out there is trying to make their products into a brand or a lifestyle. In the gaming industry, this gets talked about the most when it comes to Call of Duty. Some people consider themselves Call of Duty players, not gamers. The same sort of thing could probably be said about certain folks that play Madden or FIFA. Those gamers will spend hundreds of hours with one particular sports title, and that is pretty much the only game they will play for the entire year. Early access, a badge of honor and discounted DLC are just ways to increase that bond of tying your identity as a gamer to EA Sports.

In addition, it really seems like that discounted DLC is a way to relate to a burgeoning Ultimate Team user base. It's surprising to me how quickly Ultimate Team has become the real game for many folks. Ultimate Team users are already some of the craziest and hardcore folks out there, and they have to be the ones buying the largest quantity of DLC on a per-title basis. I have spoken with EA about Ultimate Team users, and people working at EA have talked about certain users pouring thousands of dollars into Ultimate Team modes to buy packs of cards. (This micro-transaction model has also been quite successful for EA Sports on Facebook.)

Season Ticket is in its early stages, so it feels a little like an Underpants Gnome scheme when it comes to some of the perks in the program.

When it comes to selling Season Ticket to users, one of the more interesting parts of this initiative has to be that it is tied to a partnership with GameStop. This seems especially odd because Season Ticket seems like the first step towards cutting into retail's business. However, the partnership absolutely makes sense after speaking with Andrew Wilson.

"This program is designed to work with retail," said Wilson. "We have a very key relationship with GameStop. This is not supposed to circumvent or change that relationship that the consumer has with GameStop. They have 11 million PowerUp users they will market this program to."

Eleven million gamers will be bombarded with advertising and such about Season Ticket, all thanks to GameStop. Really, that's all the explanation that is needed.

In short, there are plenty of really fascinating portions to this program. Of course, there are also negatives that will be associated with this announcement.

Price and perception are two issues at work here. It does seem a bit unfair that users will be unable to pay $5 or $10 to get access to these perks for a single EA Sports game. On top of that, EA Sports has had missteps in the eyes of consumers when it comes to DLC, whether it be boosts that affect online OTP modes or paying a fee for certain Online Dynasty components in NCAA Football, which means negative feelings are going to be associated with Season Ticket.

But timing seems to be the biggest issue working against Season Ticket. There has been a lot of talk recently about how sloppy some sports games are on release day -- thanks to issues surrounding NCAA Football 12 this time around -- and whether or not people should even buy sports games at launch anymore. (We have talked about it, so have sites like Kotaku and PastaPadre.) So the biggest perk of this program can in a way be perceived as not even being a perk because of the negative feelings associated with being an early adopter. To put it another way, for something to feel like a privilege, you have to want to be a part of that exclusive group.

When it comes to the buggy nature of launch titles, I talked with Andrew Wilson about the potential pitfalls of exposing gamers to a buggy launch title, which could conceivably lead to decreased sales.

"It's a valid point," said Wilson. "But what I would say is we're committed to building great games, and if you try one of our games, you'll want to play more. It puts the onus on us to make sure we make great games because if we don't that could be a possibility."

If this program leads to EA Sports being more focused on cleaning its games up before launch, then it should be considered a success. If all it leads to is those "privileged" gamers figuring out bugs three days earlier, then it's not a solution to the problem, it just moves up the timetable on a patch by three days.

Comments

# 16 kc10785 @ Aug 2

@scotty have you ever seen the threads on this site when people try to get the game early there's a market to reach there is a lot of hardcore football fans and all you need to do is spread the word to people that want the game but don't want to be on websites like this. This is great thing for both sides EA can make money, Video Game stores will make money cuz of pre orders, and consumers can play there game early without paying a ridiculous price off ebay. You say just casual market but you will be seeing all your Madden friends log in that Saturday before Madden comes playing Madden

# 17 kc10785 @ Aug 2

@scotty this is really target for those people who download contant and people that go wayyyyyy out there way to get the game early

# 18 RUFFNREADY @ Aug 2

This season ticket thing isn't for everybody; but i believe those that want these game early will enjoy it; and those that dont care for it, wont miss a beat off of it. I for one will buy this Season ticket and play Madden12, and show off any bugs on Youtube i get. EA needs to stop with the gimmicks and come out and produce better games at launch, and cut down on the bugs that can kill a gaming experience for alot of gamers.
I totally agree with "therockstar2005" as well, with the statement:
-"Question: if they can provide the full game digitally for download 3 days before the release date, why can't they provide the full game for digital download on the actual release date for $60? I wouldn't mind just downloading it when it comes out, and then they just make it that much easier for people to get."-

cheers

# 19 scottyo60 @ Aug 2

I understand the concept behind it, I guess there are multiple points. 1. This won't cost them much. So they will be making great profit for whatever they get back. 2. They will basically have people to test and can help fix whatever mess ups the game has. 3. Hopefully it brings EA back to focusing on a more hardcore group.. I won't purchase this, but am a hardcore fan. I hope the shift back starts to happen. 4. Finally if you get the game 3 days early and you know you will with the pass, doesn't that eventually lose the luster? Are those people who want it early just magically not going to want it even earlier then?

# 20 PhillsPhan26 @ Aug 2

No way in the world am I dishing out 25 buck to get games 3 days early and after that have to dish out 60 buck for the full game at release.

# 21 thbends @ Aug 3

You guys crack me up. I'll buy it. I like to play all sports games so $5 apiece is like renting it. It will probably in the end save me money. $25... I spend twice that on a tank of gas.

# 22 FBeaule04 @ Aug 3

I understand people wanting to play the game early, but really, paying 25$ to play the game three days earlier?

Are those people asking to party 3 days earlier for their birthday because they like birthday party and can't wait for 3 days?

There's offer that makes senses, but if there's 1000 people getting that offer, EA would have made 25K. If I'm on the marketing team at EA, and I get 1000 fish, I would laugh my a$$ out!

# 23 labguy @ Aug 3

Not sure how anyone could call EA stupid for creating this. Trust me I am far from an EA fanboy (read my blogs), but without a doubt this will make EA additional revenue and that is what their goal is. They are a business. The value of getting the games a few days early surely can be debated, but the fact is many people will fork over the $25 bucks happily. For the record, I will not be one of those people.

We will just see if they release a buggy game if the word spreads and hurts sales though. It could bite them in the tail.

# 24 FBeaule04 @ Aug 3

@ labguy

Exact same debate it was for buying or not buying the boost. EA's stupid if they thing we are going to pay 50$ to get boost for a hockey game. I would be really interested to see the revenus from that boost selling.

If only 5000 people buy the season ticket for NHL, EA will be laughing out loud at their office since it's going to be a nice 125K in the pocket.

Business wise, it's not stupid at all.