Feedbackula - EA Online Pass Paranoia!
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EA has abandoned its online pass scheme -- a bit of news we thought you'd be delighted by. Turns out not everyone is rushing to thank EA. Johnny investigates.
241 comments
good video. johnny looked like he was using all his energy not to laugh at the end there, that or he just really enjoys sneak attacks.
Well Done Johnny for another fantastic Feedbackula episode.E.A are losing their ground and will soon be on the verge of collapse because their services are all messed up.I was just about to buy BattleField 3 and Fifa 13 this week and heard the news about the discontinuation of the Online Pass.I have to say,"Are they High on something".All the money and time people must've invested on having the full game experience is wasted and I was almost part of it.EA,you better get your act together and give us the consumers something worthwhile because very soon you might just end up like the other development company,38 Studios.
It took a drop in sales to force them to make changes, not customer feedback. That says a lot about their priorities. I use to avoid buying EA games, and now I don't even have to try.
I'm sure the EA hitsquad is real, give it some time and it'll develop into a "political" party.
1 Like Declaration of Independence is self-entitled? Don't hate the player hate the game
too bad Dead Space 3 requires a Pass to play online... killing that could give the game more lifetime
@santinegrete Yup. You'd think they'd have learned that from DS2. But nope. I bought it used and never even gave the multiplayer a thought because of that. Not to mention the way it cripples rental copies. Do you have any idea how many pissed off customers I had to talk down after the BF3 launch when they realized they'd have to pay extra to play their rental online?
I looked and it seems hell hasn't frozen over, so I don't believe EA really stopped with the online pass thing.
well, no more online passes weee!, i never played with that but it looks like sucked.
next aim to no more dlcs, those really get my nerves
EA could be giving out free puppies with every game and people would still critisize them for every move (animal cruelty, in that case). It's like EA hate has been programmed into people's minds as a knee-jerk reaction or something. It was justified a few years ago, but I honestly think Activision deserves more hate because of how they treated Guitar Hero and CoD.
@KBABZ The thing about Activision is they've been keeping their collective mouths shut. They pulled Kotick out of the spotlight and put someone who can at least pretend to be a decent human being in front of the microphone, effectively taking themselves out of the limelight for the time being. EA and Activision rotate being Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine. One is only slightly less evil than the other, but that changes regularly.
Great episode, keep em coming. Btw, am I the only one who actually likes EA? They're one of my favorite publishers.
"That's the most self-entitled thing I've read since the Declaration of Independence." Haha!
I laughed way too hard at this. Love this show!
I didn't used to hear many complaints about the cost of games in the lat 90's - early 2000's, but I'm not sure why. Is it because the pirating option got many young gamers used to expecting things for free, are gamer budgets much lower relative to the past, or some combination? Based on my experience being in a university community since 2006, I am leaning much closer to the "expect to have something that I want" frame of mind. I'm not a fan of EA's business moves, but the pirates kind of brought it on themselves by starting the whole "revenue drop raise prices" loop.
2 Like By the way... you can read EA's statement as "Wasn't profitable, so won't do it anymore, BUT had enough of you bought into it, we would continue to keep screwing you."
@JustPlainLucas Yeah but that's how all businesses work. Well, most of them. At least public ones.
The victory here is in the fact that enough people stopped buying their shit. Good for the gamers.
EA is known for being a trendsetter in this industry. Now that they no longer will continue with the crap they started, let's hope other companies do exactly the same.
EA: We will harvest your organs!
Consumer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I could not stop laughing when Johnny said that in the video.
What I find is ironic is when people call EA evil for online passes, then have Blizzard game avatars :P I wouldn't consider EA the worst game company out there. At least most games they put out are good quality they just have some lousy practices. I would rather pay 60 bucks for a new game that is good quality but has a online pass than pay 60 bucks for a lousy quality game with no online pass.
2 Like As questionable as some these companies practices are, the video game community has some of the most self entitled individuals in existence.
I would have to say the video game industry takes the cake in terms of consumer entitlement. For EA to be one of the most hated companies in america or whatnot is absolutely ludacris the rapper. Of all the companies that engage in questionable business practices, EA is not even in the same stratosphere.
2 Like Obviously EA isn't the worst company in America, but their "winning" the award isn't indicative of consumer entitlement. It's just that it was an online poll and gamers happen to spend more time online than most. Had it been a letter-writing poll, you can bet that a health insurance company would have won it. Had it been a cell phone app, perhaps a cable provider would have won. It's just that the poll was conducted through a medium that gamers dominate.
I also disagree with the point about consumer entitlement in general. While there has been a great deal of outcry over game company practices, we all seem to agree that the practices are wrong. If the practices are wrong, then what makes us entitled? I think people are reading into the vitriol and forgetting that it's coming, again, from online forums. The internet is basically the hub of disproportionate reactions in western society. This is a place where lives are threatened over disagreements, where people post spoilers just to ruin someone else's day, and where people anonymously vent their frustrations in ways that almost never reflect how they really feel.
I mean, look at the nonsensical outrage over Mass Effect 3. I'm telling you, prior to the internet age, most gamers would have sucked their teeth, shrugged, and gotten on with their lives. Today, when they can projectile vomit their immediate reactions literally across the globe in an instant, it's easy to see how such absurd and out-of-place anger can appear, and even propagate.
@JBStone1981
I can understand that no one likes over priced DLC, online passes, and etc. but it 's at a point where companies and developers can not please anyone. A company makes a sequel, they are rehashing and milking, they don't make a sequel and they've abandoned the franchise and the fans. No matter what they do, they can't win.
EA still has questionable business ethics. Example command and conquer generals 2 PAY TO WIN!
COOP IN EVERYTHING! ORIGIN, poor mass effect 3 ending! milking every game to death.
once more DEATH TO EA!
JOHNNY!!!! BRING BACK THE "OLDBACULA" INTRO! OR I SHALL CONSUME YOUR SOUL!!!!!!
oh... and down with EA etc etc etc
1 Like I'm all for them dropping the online pass, it should of been dropped the second it was suggested. But not for a moment do I think this was because of negative consumer response.
I've only ever bought one used game that had an online pass (Dead Space 2). Guess what? I didn't buy the online pass! I would wager I'm not the only person who has done that. They are dropping the online pass because people aren't buying them.
EA are not that bad of a company. btw EA was first to do online passes and first to stop. never really bothered me i dont buy used
The first step to gaining our trust back is probably the abandonment of online passes, but it will take more than that. But it is a good first step.
there a lot of exagerations and paranoia in this world but in the case of EA, the hate is well desserved mate!
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