EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

[Rashad19]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

Very few. Most folks that buy the game used would not be willing to buy the game brand new. Instead of worrying about used sales and trying to penalize the used / aftermarket, EA should focus on the quality of the game. The aftermarket, is AFTER the game is no longer a viable new buy.

Great point Valdarez! I do not hear about people running to Gamestop or Ebay to trade in or sell MLB The Show or CODMW 2. EA's piece meal approach to business simply irks me.

TheWatcher wrote a great post the other day explaining how the different teams of madden pretty much work exclusively of one another and it got me to thinking. I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here but other than the art department Madden is the same game I played on my PS2.

Gameplay is the same, the plays are the same, franchise basically the same, presentation is a little better. This is why we question what have these guys been doing other than tweaking the game here or there the last 5 years. No major innovation has taken place. EA needs to focus on making a great game and sales will take care of themselves.

[Valdarez]

This really hearkens back to the NFL Exclusitivy deal and whether or not they have a monopoly control of the football market. To me, this smacks of a Monoply's ability to employ Price Discrimination.

A seller of a product in a competitive industry (i.e., one characterized by many competing sellers of a good or service) generally can only charge a single price (i.e., the price that its competitors are charging) to all of its customers. However, monopolists not only have the ability to charge a higher price than would competitive firms supplying the same product, but they also have the ability to charge significantly different prices to different customers for the same product.

Monopolists are invariably well aware both of this ability and of the fact that by taking advantage of it they can often gain much greater profits than they could by just charging a single price to all customers. That is, a monopolist can maximize its profits by charging a separate profit-maximizing price for each type or group of customers (those that buy new, purchase electronically new, or buy the game used) rather than by charging one profit maximizing price to all customers taken as a whole, because of the differences that generally exist among the different types or groups of customers with respect to their ability and willingness to pay. This behavior is termed price discrimination.

EA sports monopoly hold on the NFL football market enables their ability to engage successfully in price discrimination.

[bigjake62505]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

This really hearkens back to the NFL Exclusitivy deal and whether or not they have a monopoly control of the football market. To me, this smacks of a Monoply's ability to employ Price Discrimination. A seller of a product in a competitive industry (i.e., one characterized by many competing sellers of a good or service) generally can only charge a single price (i.e., the price that its competitors are charging) to all of its customers. However, monopolists not only have the ability to charge a higher price than would competitive firms supplying the same product, but they also have the ability to charge significantly different prices to different customers for the same product. Monopolists are invariably well aware both of this ability and of the fact that by taking advantage of it they can often gain much greater profits than they could by just charging a single price to all customers. That is, a monopolist can maximize its profits by charging a separate profit-maximizing price for each type or group of customers (those that buy new, purchase electronically new, or buy the game used) rather than by charging one profit maximizing price to all customers taken as a whole, because of the differences that generally exist among the different types or groups of customers with respect to their ability and willingness to pay. This behavior is termed price discrimination. EA sports monopoly hold on the NFL football market enables their ability to engage successfully in price discrimination.

+1 These guy are digging their own graves. If you think the law suits are bad now wait until you have to pay to play the game with all the features we are used to now, up to date rosters, franchise mode online and off, subscriptions to play online, hell they can go as far as to charge for individual teams and stadiums. No matter how stupid we think these law suits are now, practice makes perfect. I think developers are finding ways to get their foot in the door with their own versions of football, hell this year we have two new games coming out, Backbreaker and Tecmo throwback. EA's reign as the only football game in town is over and if these games have any success it is going to be too costly to maintain that exclusive license if their sales continue to decline.

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by Valdarez

Very few. Most folks that buy the game used would not be willing to buy the game brand new. Instead of worrying about used sales and trying to penalize the used / aftermarket, EA should focus on the quality of the game. The aftermarket, is AFTER the game is no longer a viable new buy.

I'm not sold on that. I agree this is very close to a monopoly. If the only way you could get an NFL video game was to buy it new as a download, plenty of consumers would simply do this.

I agree EA needs to focus on their products, but why should they? Promise enough to get the purchase, take away the ability to trade-in when people find out the product doesn't work and collect your money.

On another similiar note, what if patches become DLC? People who hated Madden 10 (me) held onto the game to December for the patch. What if with Madden 11 they delay releasing the patches on purpose to prevent trade-ins on the discs? Or promise 3rd or 4th patches for $5 bucks a pop. Wouldn't that also be a way they could further take advantage of us without forcing us to download the game just yet?

[bigjake62505]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

I'm not sold on that. I agree this is very close to a monopoly. If the only way you could get an NFL video game was to buy it new as a download, plenty of consumers would simply do this. I agree EA needs to focus on their products, but why should they? Promise enough to get the purchase, take away the ability to trade-in when people find out the product doesn't work and collect your money. On another similiar note, what if patches become DLC? People who hated Madden 10 (me) held onto the game to December for the patch. What if with Madden 11 they delay releasing the patches on purpose to prevent trade-ins on the discs? Or promise 3rd or 4th patches for $5 bucks a pop. Wouldn't that also be a way they could further take advantage of us without forcing us to download the game just yet?

Im sure there would be plenty of people who would do that, but not me. When this happens I just wont be playing anymore, simple as that.

[OrangeCrush]

I'm more mad at the NFL than I am at EA. This exclusive deal is the biggest slap in the face to NFL video games fans ever.

But Peter Moore is a good businessman, he knows much extra money he will make by doing this as the core base of Madden fans are like Pantherbeast, willing to support EA no matter what, so I give Moore mad credit as a capitalist, that is exactly the type of person EA Sports wants as their president.

[Joborule]

Quote: Originally Posted by killgod

I was told directly (in private, so sorry man) from someone who went to community day for Madden 10 that Ian and Co wanted to release Online Franchise after release date as DLC so they could complete the feature. The suits said no, this is our back of the box feature and release it as is. I'll let the man who told me this choose whether or not he wants to confirm, if not take it as random forum BS then.

Sorry that this is completely out of context in where discussion is currently, but I had to respond to this since I went to the said event.

We didn't even get to know about Online Franchise until you guys did since that feature was held back from us knowing then. Ian and Phil said they couldn't talk about online features yet and will announce them around E3 time. So I'm interested how you got this quote since it's more then likely false.

[rickywal]

Its pretty common now for most games to be available on Xbox 360 to be purchase through the marketplace. And I guess what they are saying is if they get people to buy and download straight away then they can't trade the game in.

Until microsoft fix the xbox marketplace though, I would never do this. As at the moment I have to buy credits to spend and can't just purchase the exact amount I need to get what I want. Its just another way to get me to spend more money on things I don't want.

Treat your customers with respect. Give them a good product with no strings attached and they'll become return customers. Give them a faulty product and have conditions on the item and they're loyalty to your product will die. By being greedy EA is distancing us, the customers from their brand. I love madden but the day they lose the exclusive license I think their sales will drop dramatically.