EA Sports' Season Ticket Hears Crickets on Debut Day (Kotaku)

[sportsgamefanman]

Quote: Originally Posted by spit_bubble

Never really understood the appeal of this. Pay money for three days time with an un-patched game? Why would I want to do that?

It's like a 4 day rental. I have played it all day. Last year I bought madden and hated it. This year I bought NCAA and there are so many things wrong with that game I will be trading it in for madden on Tuesday after deciding to buy it. If I could have tried this out for NCC it would have saved me $60.00 in the long run.

Great part about it for me is I get all the games early while everyone else waites and it can save me money in the long run. I will do the same for Tiger, NHL, Fifa, NCAA next year as well. It's a rental and better than a demo where you can't see the whole game and get a feel for what its really like. Everyone always says demos are early builds so its hard to judge off a demo so essintialy your taking a chance.

Plus its $25.00 a year. Not like its a $125 or something. To me Im so impatient so it's worth it to me. To each there own though...

[Gotmadskillzson]

EA Season Ticket been known for a while.......Just bad timing for Madden.

1. College kids went back to school last week and this week. Average college kid not looking to drop $25 when they got buy several hundred dollars worth of books. Probably cost them 1/4 of their potentials.

2. Hurricane Irene on the east coast probably cost them 1/4 of their potentials. People leaving the coast line and buying up supplies. Season Ticket don't come to mind when you got a hurricane coming towards your area.

3. Season Ticket just isn't that big of a lure either just to get a game 3 days early, then have to turn around and STILL go to the store and buy the retail version of it.

Now if they allowed you to buy the game early if you had season ticket, then yeah I think a lot more people would have jumped on.

[Spanky]

I'd never dream of stuffing an additional $25 in EA's coffers for this money grab, but I'm happy a lot of people did because it means more impressions and videos four days before release.

So this is one instance where I applaud EA for its greed. And I hope it continues.

[cb35]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

EA Season Ticket been known for a while.......Just bad timing for Madden. 1. College kids went back to school last week and this week. Average college kid not looking to drop $25 when they got buy several hundred dollars worth of books. Probably cost them 1/4 of their potentials. 2. Hurricane Irene on the east coast probably cost them 1/4 of their potentials. People leaving the coast line and buying up supplies. Season Ticket don't come to mind when you got a hurricane coming towards your area. 3. Season Ticket just isn't that big of a lure either just to get a game 3 days early, then have to turn around and STILL go to the store and buy the retail version of it. Now if they allowed you to buy the game early if you had season ticket, then yeah I think a lot more people would have jumped on.

Kinda right on Irene - I think it was the threat of losing power in a lot of areas on the East coast that could have hindered impulse buys.

In general this is a greedy move by EA - they are continually looking for revenue streams on the backs of gamers - first the used game market with the online pass coupon for new copies only and now the street date chase gamers. Just be glad they don't own a sports franchise - or else fixed ticket pricing would go out the window and they would make every seat auction only. Surprised they didn't do a early release launch and just sell the game early for X number of people at a premium price - I wouldn't rule that out in the future.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

3. Season Ticket just isn't that big of a lure either just to get a game 3 days early, then have to turn around and STILL go to the store and buy the retail version of it.

I think that would be the biggest downside for most. How many people are really that hyped to play FIFA, NHL, Tiger, etc. 3days early. So it ends up being a $25 premium for 1-2 games and as you said, you still have to go to the store to pick it up and pay full price. Guess if they're going to continue the program in the future they're going to have to offer bigger incentives, like maybe allowing people to get the full version at a discounted price. But then that gets into electronic distribution issues I guess. Still numbers are pretty surprising.

[mva5580]

It's $25 to basically rent 5 games for 3 days each. I really don't see it as a bad deal. Anyone claiming that, I'll throw a prediction out there that most of you waste more than $25 in a month on stuff that has no "real" long term value. So $25 for a year? I don't see the big deal.

If anything it will probably end up saving me money in the long run as after playing Madden today, I cancelled my pre-order.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by spankdatazz22

I think that would be the biggest downside for most. How many people are really that hyped to play FIFA, NHL, Tiger, etc. 3days early. So it ends up being a $25 premium for 1-2 games and as you said, you still have to go to the store to pick it up and pay full price. Guess if they're going to continue the program in the future they're going to have to offer bigger incentives, like maybe allowing people to get the full version at a discounted price. But then that gets into electronic distribution issues I guess. Still numbers are pretty surprising.

That's why I'm treating NHL, FIFA, etc. as rentals rather than early release access. Blockbuster Video is still my only real rental option (because I have no need for a Gamefly subscription I won't use 5+ months out of the year), and I do at least rent most EA Sports games that come out.

BB rentals are $8 for 5 days, I think (it's definitely not 7 days anymore). The four games on Season Ticket I'd rent other than Madden (not counting FIFA Street which I have less than zero interest in) combined would be $32 over the course of the year. Season ticket is $25 for a couple fewer days than those rentals, but I don't typically need 5 days of playing to make a purchase decision.

That's my reason for getting it.

[JayD]

HaHa, that is all.