New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

[mattbooty]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

You don't find it ridiculous for the consumer who is buying these games every year for $60 to have to pay extra for a feature that the dev team took time and money out of normal game development to create?

The web features are a different skillset, its more likely they brought in a separate team to develop those. I find it very unlikely that they (for instance) went to the guy improving cornerback logic and yanked him off of that to develop the web-enabled features. It is very unlikely that the development of these features affected what other features everyone gets in any way. With or without these features you are getting the same game for your $60.

[kbmnm247]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

Really? The ability to super sim from the internet should have been put in a long time ago? Give me a freakin' break. Once you pay your $60, you can still do an online dynasty for exactly $0. You can still sim those games for exactly $0. And you can still advance weeks for exactly $0.

Charging extra for the ability to do some of this stuff from your PC is more than fine in my book. To me, it's like buying a PC game and expecting to be able to access certain extras on your PS3 or 360 for free.

What if I want to do 2 dynasties because, you know, some of us have 2 or more groups of friends who contribute to the millions in revenue they receive every year for these games?

[coogrfan]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

What exactly am I supposed to be thankful for testing here? To see if the advance from a remote location actually works? I know what the feature is, does, and will do. It's simply a marketing tactic, the fact you think it's to test is a joke.

I'm fairly sure he was referring to the sim online entitlement. Being able to test drive it for a week before buying is undeniably a good thing.

[kbmnm247]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I wish I didn't have to pay anything for this stuff, but why do people resort to bashing the makers of the game? NHL is pretty damn amazing. You mean to tell me that EA does their best for NHL but not the other games? I just don't know where the idea comes from that EA doesn't care. People on these forums fail to understand that people just like them are the ones making the games.

lol you must be trolling now.

THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT WE ARE TELLING YOU. Yes, NHL 2k started to take from some of their revenue and was a better game than NHL and so EA Sports overhauled their franchise and created what is a GREAT game, I'll admit that now. Using the sticks the way they did was revolutionary and an awesome feature that they only did because 2K was cutting into their market and starting to pass them. It's the same thing they've done with FIFA, since PES was starting to gain on them. Is it coincidence that the games with direct competition who were doing well are now the best EA Sports has to offer and the ones with no competition have game breaking bugs and take 6 months to actually work correctly EVERY SINGLE year?

[coogrfan]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

What if I want to do 2 dynasties because, you know, some of us have 2 or more groups of friends who contribute to the millions in revenue they receive every year for these games?

The "advance dynasty" entitlement is included in the $6.99 fee that will be required to commish multiple OD's this time around.

If you don't want to commish more than one dynasty at a time, the $2.99 option is the way to go. Note that this is a one-time fee good for the life of NCAA 12 (so it can apply to multiple dynasties, just not at the same time).

[mattbooty]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

If you think the revenue for these games hasn't increased at the same or a better rate than what they are spending on these games then you are insane. That is a LAME excuse.

Its proven that games actually cost less today based on inflation dollars than they did 10 or 20 years ago, and it is also proven that games cost much more to produce than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Granted, companies are selling much higher quantities so that even at a lower profit margin they are still making money. But as most all other consumer goods are raising in price close to the level of inflation games have actually come down in price (based on inflation). So yes eventually something is going to have to give, whether that is added revenue via DLC or raising the costs of games.

[N51_rob]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I just remembered a problem that needs to be fixed from NCAA 11. In all three of the dynasties that I was in last year, in an off-season, the comish no longer could advance the dynasty and couldn't give control to some one else. I beleive they couldn't even get back into the dynasty. (an example of the problem can be found in the OS Vets threads as it happened to both the 360 and PS3 leagues)

They dynasty had to be restarted using an old save file that another member had and they became the comish. So If I pay the $2.99 and the problem pops up again, what is going to be EA's response? Full Refund credit for next year? If this feature had been in last year, with how awful the servers were at times (some bowl game dropping after the first play was picked. Formations in bowl games that cause the connection to drop.) how sure are they that this stuff won't happen again?

File had to be loaded by a different user to be the comish.
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...post2041451009

Formations causing bowl games to drop.
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...post2041696199

Championship game being dropped and having to be simmed.
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...post2041984236

My point being I have no problem paying for some online features, but of the services I paid for aren't working after the fiasco that was NCAA and even Madden 11 what is EA going to do with customers who are not satisfied with the services they purchased?

[kbmnm247]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

We're talking about a company that once sold AFL jerseys as DLC for Madden. Yeah they don't have a history. I'm gonna laugh if/when they release the gamestop pre-order uniforms as DLC this year. I'm sure there'll be a line of people telling me why that's ok too though.

And no competition wouldn't eliminate DLC, but we'd be much more likely to get the most value for our money. That's the whole point. EA has it made, they don't have to worry about any comp and like the article points out they can charge for DLC with little to no backlash from the consumers. Again props to Kotaku for at least trying to change this.

thank you for being one of the only other voices of reason in this thread. Every post you make I fully agree with and it's my exact feelings. Half of the posters I'm reading are arguing against us and then later they post an anecdote that completely agrees with what you've been trying to say.

Look, companies can make money WITHOUT ridiculous questionable DLC. GAMEPLAY is what sells, not dreads, grass kicking up, online dynasty advancements remotely, etc.

Why is NHL winning game of the year awards? Because 2K was on their heels and they had to do something or else they'd lose their market.

Why was the Madden after 2K one of the best ones released? Because they had competition and knew it was only way to get the maximum revenue.

Why is FIFA much better now and taking unbelievable strides compared to what it used to be? Because Pro Evo Soccer came in and was starting to pull some gamers their way.

None of this has anything to do with DLC. Business is business and they are in it to make profits I agree. But EA Sports only does this because they CAN, period. If you don't see that then you need to look closer.

[kbmnm247]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

And in the "good old days" before DLC I remember actually playing football games without the real NFL teams OR players period. What is wrong with EA charging for the AFL uniforms? It's an EXTRA, you didnt have to have those to play the regular, traditional NFL game.

I guess my question to you is this, why does EA owe you the throwback AFL uniforms free of charge?

Because there were games played during the regular season with teams wearing said uniforms.

Why do they owe you any uniforms at all?

ODogg, you're obviously a mature adult if you've played Atari 2600, so how can you just be accepting all of this and what is given to you and siding with these huge power corps?

Why do they owe you anything year to year? Why are you asking questions that are just going to create horrible situations in the future for gaming consumer if all of us just accept all of this as standard?

[4solo]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

thank you for being one of the only other voices of reason in this thread. Every post you make I fully agree with and it's my exact feelings. Half of the posters I'm reading are arguing against us and then later they post an anecdote that completely agrees with what you've been trying to say.

Look, companies can make money WITHOUT ridiculous questionable DLC. GAMEPLAY is what sells, not dreads, grass kicking up, online dynasty advancements remotely, etc.

Why is NHL winning game of the year awards? Because 2K was on their heels and they had to do something or else they'd lose their market.

Why was the Madden after 2K one of the best ones released? Because they had competition and knew it was only way to get the maximum revenue.

Why is FIFA much better now and taking unbelievable strides compared to what it used to be? Because Pro Evo Soccer came in and was starting to pull some gamers their way.

None of this has anything to do with DLC. Business is business and they are in it to make profits I agree. But EA Sports only does this because they CAN, period. If you don't see that then you need to look closer.

I just don't get it b/c all games sell DLC whether they have competition or not. Don't get me wrong, I understand your POV with DLC but if you continue to buy the game every year you are just as much at fault. The only way to eliminate the company that "monopolized" the industry is stop buying their product.

[kingkilla56]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

This argument boils down to how you see it. Is the dealership charging you extra for power windows? Or is the dealership charging you extra for the rear axle?

The ability for commissioning 5 dynasties online is equivalent to power windows to me. Without it, my car is still rolling fine.


[/weak analogy]

[jeremym480]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I'm coming in late to the game on this thread, but I've posted in similar threads over the last week.

The one major point that hasn't really been mentioned yet in this thread is that web-enabled content requires ONGOING server/infrastructure costs to keep running. These are costs that increase proportionally to the number of people who use the feature. It doesn't cost EA any additional money if 1,000 or 1,000,000 people buy NCAA 12... but it is a significant difference if 1% or 50% of those use the web-enabled features and those costs are ongoing, it is not a one time deal.

These are not features they had to add to the game to be competitive (as there is no competition) or sell more copies (as mostly only hardcore fans want this feature and 99% of them are buying the game anyways). They did it because the hardcore fan was clamoring for it (which was noted in the article in OP). The only way they were going to add these features was to find a way to offset the server costs they would need to add to support them (with development costs on top of that but infrastructure costs alone justify this).

I do not believe we are looking at a question of do they offer these web-features as paid DLC or free, I think it is more do they offer them as paid DLC or not at all. A VERY small % of consumers (if any) will buy the game strictly because of these particular features, so considering the additional costs to support them these features are a money pit. Without recouping some money on them, what possible motivation could EA have to add them in?

Yes, EA has to improve the product each year to keep consumers interested, and (taking the "business" part out of it) just as payback to their loyal fanbase. And they have done that with dozens of new features this year that you get right out of the box for your $60. The key is that the costs to develop those features end the day the game goes gold (with the exception of possible future patches, but that is just part of every game's life-cycle these days). HDR isn't going to keep costing them money after the game is gold so there is no added costs for it.

I can understand the argument about alternate uniforms and similar items (although I personally don't use them so have no real care one way or another on those), but the web-enabled features I have no problem with the added charge, and I don't believe we get those features without the charge so if I have to choose between $7 or not having the feature at all I'll pay.

This post deserved more than just the "Thanks" button.



/thread

[Colt45]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I apologize for being a little confused, but can someone list what, exactly, is for sale here?

I know these two:

2.99 for advance week online
2.99 for sim games online

Is there other things (aside from jerseys, w/e) that have been announced for sale?

[Solidice]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

I apologize for being a little confused, but can someone list what, exactly, is for sale here?

I know these two:

2.99 for advance week online
2.99 for sim games online

Is there other things (aside from jerseys, w/e) that have been announced for sale?

you can get those 2, along with the ability to host 5 ODs together for $6.99 total, which FWIW, cost $15 in NCAA 11 by itself.

I imagine all the "boosters" or whatever they were called will still be there.

[roadman]

Re: New Features Aren’t All Free in NCAA Football 12

None of this has anything to do with DLC. Business is business and they are in it to make profits I agree. But EA Sports only does this because they CAN, period. If you don't see that then you need to look closer.

So do other gaming companies.

I said in the Madden thread, our son pleaded for us to buy a map pack for COD. We bought it for him and he told me it was a piece of crap. He's never asked again. That was $15.00, this is $3.00.

It's all about options. If this is burning inside of you, don't buy the game. That's the only way you'll feel better and not give EA your hard earned $.

I'm not buying it the "extras" because I don't need it, but that isn't preventing me from purchasing a good game if that is what it is.