if EA charges for alt jerseys/historicle/all madden teams and stadiums, will you pay?

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by extremeskinz

I agree. I don't understand why EA doesn't hire more people to work for them. MAybe it is lack of organization. I have no idea how many people they have on their staff...

Another mentioned in another post that, according to the credits, 2K had more folks working on 2K5 then Madden had on it's games. I don't recall if he was referring to next or current gen Madden's, but that's surprising either way. I have to remember to check this out.

[Wheele8]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

Good points, although I'm not in agreement with your pov. Did you read my post directly before yours? I'd be interested to hear your response.

You make a very solid arguement, but I still have to disagree with it's main premise.
The development costs for developing a game like Madden are vastly offset by the ability of EA to recycle the core game every year. This is not a situation where the cost of devoping Morrowind was X, while the cost of developing Oblivion was X times 12, thus obviously leading the company to search for creative ways to make additional money, to actually make their game profitable.
I understand EA needs to recoup the money forked over for the exclusive NFL license, additional system licenses and such, but Madden is a money making machine in it's second go through on this system. The cost in relationship to the revenue is not prohibitive regardless of charging for additional content that used to come standard. It's not as if, by charging for alternate unis and such that they are just now turning a profit.
Of course it's in their right to charge more money, but their reasons are fundamentally based on greed. They know they're the only game in town, they know people do not make wise financial decision-particularly when those are micro-decisions, and they're abusing their consumer base.
A better analogy would be comparing EA to a cable company that doesn't have another competitor in its region. After moving from Boston to Louisville, I'm forced to pay extra to get ESPN classic when that used to be standard. Because there is competition in Boston it kept the price down or the quality of the product up, but in Louisville, there's only one cable company, so they can abuse their consumer, and charge an extra 15 bucks for their sports & lifestyles package which includes a slew of channels I'm used to getting for free. Once the market allows for a competitor (or I move and get a dish), I'll change services not just because the other brand may be better, but because my current cable service has really pissed me off.

[bigfnjoe96]

I know every publisher is different, but IMO this is a gr-8 stratergy:

Quote:

Atari, Inc., one of the world’s most recognized brands and a leading third-party video game publisher, today announced official pricing for its upcoming, highly-anticipated next-generation racing game, Test Drive Unlimited. Atari will offer Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for US$39.95. To further extend consumers’ gaming experiences, Test Drive Unlimited car packs featuring six or more cars, complete with genre-specific radio stations, will be available for download monthly, beginning six weeks after launch on Xbox Live Marketplace. “Innovation should be available to everyone, not a privilege for those can afford high price tags,” said Bruno Bonnell, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Atari. “Our GamersFirst program demonstrated the positive impact of flexibility in pricing. We believe it is our mission to deliver triple-A games that are accessible to the masses. As such, we are offering Test Drive Unlimited – a game that is being positively touted and recognized by the media – for $39.95, and furthermore, will continue users’ experiences past launch by featuring new cars and free music for download.” Test Drive Unlimited’s monthly car packs will feature a mixture of manufacturers and models of the world’s finest vehicles. Each downloaded car pack will also include a free radio station. Radio stations will be set according to genres, such as Rock, Blues, Electronic, R&B, Jazz, Latin, etc., and feature between 10-20 songs. Test Drive Unlimited has been receiving accolades from industry media as one of the top racing games this decade. GameDaily declared “This is the kind of racing game I live for,” while IGN.com stated “there's no denying Test Drive Unlimited is looking like one of recent memory's most unique racers.” TeamXbox described Test Drive Unlimited as a “revolutionary online driver.” At this year’s E3, the annual video game trade show, Test Drive Unlimited received a slew of E3 nominations and awards, including both PLAY Magazine and GameTrailers.com “Best Racing Game.” Packed with 90 vehicles, one thousand plus miles of open roads and a host of online options, Test Drive Unlimited is M.O.O.R.: Massively Open Online Racing - the ultimate online automotive gaming experience for Xbox 360 gamers. Both online and offline gamers will experience the world’s most exotic and fastest vehicles on Test Drive Unlimited’s diverse Hawaiian roads. Gamers win races, challenges, missions and tournaments to earn credits and purchase new cars, bikes, apparel, homes and garages. Boasting huge online content, racers around the world can challenge others to join them in the virtual paradise of the game’s persistent online racing world. Players will engage in online challenges, and build communities by creating or joining exclusive members clubs to talk, trade cars, and race with other like-minded and similarly-skilled drivers in Test Drive Unlimited, one of the most comprehensive online racing experiences to date.

No excuse for the raping were getting from Publisher, especially when they know Downloadedable Content is coming down the road...

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by ausar72

What i don't understand is all of the mystery surrounding it. Let us know what you are planning to do with it EA! They don't include them in the game, then they put in an area in the game where they are supposed to be. Then they DON'T give you any information on how much they will be, time-frame for release etc... So all we can do is sit around and speculate. In my eyes they've waited too long for NCAA for me to purchase any extra uniforms. Now that Madden is out, I'm just using NCAA for the draft class functionality, playing a few of the games here and there. They need to let us in on gwhat's going on. Communicate with the consumer so we can prepare for what ever they have planned. I would hope that by September all of this stuff would be implemented to coincide with the start of the football seasons, but would it hurt to actually let the fanbase know what's coming down the road?

I believe they're either waiting until the last minute, right before the season, hopefully to be sure they're including all possible combinations, or they just don't have them ready.

I would think a lot of people feel how you feel regarding NCAA. I know a lot of folks get the game as a holdover. They should've dropped the NCAA unis before they dropped Madden.

[coogrfan]

Solid points, Wheele8, although I believe you are underestimating the degree of additional expense involved. Consider the following from the BusinessWeek piece I linked earlier:

Quote:

How will next gen game development impact costs of games? The initial R&D investment the industry is making is large. The by-product of that is that this first series of Xbox 360 games have a higher price point, which is closer to $60 than the currently common $50 price point. The R&D investment will be amortized over the life of the consoles, so this initial investment will matter less a couple of years down the road, but next-gen games will still be more expensive to make. As the hardware allows us to present more graphical richness, the requirement for art rises proportionally. You can't create amazing art algorithmically, so it's a case where more art "man hours" will have to be applied to each project. Additionally, the ability to have more complex interactions with game environments will require more game designer hours to implement, more sophisticated scripting, and more complex character animations and dialogue. The reward is the prospect of much better games and the potential to grow the size of the market to reach more casual gamers or novice or "non-gamers".******** language=JavaScript type=text/javascript>******** language=JavaScript src="http://oascentral.businessweek.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/businessweek.com/innovation/games/1492951936@Frame2?campaign_id=rediff&RM_Exclude=Airlines,Automobiles" type=text/javascript>******** language=JavaScript> document.cookie = "outofbanner=1;path=/;domain=businessweek.com";********> var cm8cat="test.bweek_inter"; document.write("");******** language=javascript src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/checkm8_init_1.js?VER=3.1.2">******** language=VBScript> on error resume next C42 = true Y52 = true Z52 = true ******** language=javascript src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/RMM/detect?TIP=104&WIDTH=975&HEIGHT=207&DATE=20060825&HOUR=16&FONTSIZE=7&KEYWORD=&SERVICEHOST=rmm1u.checkm8.com&AX=1&[email protected]_inter">******** src="http://images1u.checkm8.com:80/RMM/MediaServer/Business Week/All/14538/innerSt08162006.js">******** src="http://images1u.checkm8.com:80/RMM/MediaServer/Business Week/All/14538/cm8_fix_zindex.js"> ******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/default.js?VER=3.1.2">******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/cm8TMFix.js?VER=3.1.2">******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/cm8MedHtml.js?VER=3.1.2">******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/cm8ctrl.js?VER=3.1.2">******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/cm8TMJS.js?VER=3.1.2">******** src="http://rmm1u.checkm8.com/checkm8scripts/IE/cm8MedJs.js?VER=3.1.2">******** language=JavaScript src="http://www.businessweek.com/common_scripts/Tacoda_footer.js" type=text/javascript>http://te.businessweek.com/blank.gif...novation/games ******** language=JavaScript src="http://www.businessweek.com/common_scripts/s_code_remote.js" type=text/javascript>http://om.businessweek.com/b/ss/busi...7771560466329?[AQB]&ndh=1&t=25/7/2006%2016%3A21%3A35%205%20300&vmt=43D8135C&pageName=Next%20Generation%20Game%20Concepts&g=http%3A//www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2005/id20051201_193273.htm%3Fcampaign_id%3Drediff&r=http%3A//forums.operationsports.com/vBulletin/showthread.php%3Fp%3D2585390%26posted%3D1%23post25 85390&ch=%5Bobject%5D&v0=rediff&cc=USD&c1=story&h1=Design%2CNews%2CNext%20Generation%20Game%20Conc epts&c2=www.businessweek.com&c3=http%3A//www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2005/id20051201_193273.htm&v7=Next%20Generation%20Game%20Concepts&c8=rediff&c9=John%20Gaudiosi&c11=forums.operationsports.com&c14=rediff%20%3A%20Next%20Generation%20Game%20Conc epts&s=1024x768&c=32&j=1.3&v=Y&k=Y&bw=1002&bh=625&ct=lan&hp=N&[AQE] ******** src="http://content.dl-rms.com/rms/3487/nodetag.js">******** src="http://amch.questionmarket.com/adsc/d0/3487/0/randm.js">

I believe this will be the norm for next-gen gaming.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[augustus]

To answer the original question... God no!

I think its sad that people would be willing to pay more for STAPLE items. The only reason why EA may sink this low is because you (the consumers) are willing to pay for it. It will just embolden EA to take out even more features and charge you for them later.


I have an even better question...

If they charged a fee for the download of a player editor for 360 (which was not in the original game) would you pay for that too??? There has to be limits here and only the consumer can set the tone.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wheele8

This was about cutting overhead costs, to keep the cost of the product down. EA's strategy is about nickel & diming the consumer.

I doubt cutting cost is an option for EA. With the gas analogy, people pumping their own gas is a viable option. Where could EA cut cost... well other than not purchasing the exclusive license? Unless there's some type of option, it's too late for that.

Quote: Originally Posted by Wheele8

There's very little to no money saved from removing alternate jerseys from the game. In other words, they're not making this optional to save the consumer that doesn't want the "product" the money that the "product" costs. It's not as if EA has actively chosen to remove items from next gen to keep dev costs down, so the consumer only has to pay the accustomed price of $50.

But there's lots of money to be made. Unless you disagree with them not having cuttable cost, extra income is the other option. Or they could cut the development team. Or maybe they have some execs that can go.

Quote: Originally Posted by Wheele8

Madden is a money-making machine and they're pumping it for all it's worth. To think otherwise would be foolish.

Agreed, but they have to get that license money back somehow. I seriously doubt sales will increase enough to do so.

[nxt]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigfnjoe96

I know every publisher is different, but IMO this is a gr-8 stratergy: No excuse for the raping were getting from Publisher, especially when they know Downloadedable Content is coming down the road...

Wow! Bravo to Atari!