EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

[Valdarez]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

I could care less about them.

I DO care about being able to re-sell the game on say Amazon or E-Bay when I'm tired of it.

I get something out of it and help some other gamer get a game they wanted at a lesser price (or at all in some cases).

Exactly. It's YOUR game, not EA's at that point. Something EA Sports just doesn't get. They view it as THEIR game, even after you shell out $60 for it.

[Rashad19]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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.

[killgod]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

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.

bring it up with those who were there.

the pm was saved but no longer exists because maddenmania no longer exists.

if he doesn't care to admit ian told him this as he explained to me, then so be it. not a big deal to me if you believe it or not, it's what i was told and that's all there is to it.

take it or leave it.

[splff3000]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

Wow!! This thread is full of firsts for me. This is the first time I've disagreed with KJcheezhead. Having said that.....

Think about how many sales Madden is losing now to gamestop trade-ins. Weigh the loss of 360 owners who wouldn't upgrade there systems to be able to download vs the sales losses they are losing on all their games right now. Going digital probably would make them more profitable.

Most years, I would agree with this, but 10 was not traded in as much as the previous versions of the game (probably because it was HALF decent). Do I have a chart to tell me this? nope. I did, however, drive to 3 different gamestops in my area looking for it used months after I traded it in and couldn't find it. One gamestop employee said they don't get too many in and when they do, they go pretty fast. Now that may be that particular gamestop, I don't know, but I do know I had a devil of a time trying to find a used copy. Luckily I found someone selling it on craigslist for the cheap. To assume that people would just upgrade their systems to play Madden is a false assumption, especially after the rep it has gotten the last few years as just a roster update to a bad game. I don't think most people would be willing to upgrade their system just for Madden. They'd probably just not play it. Now if other FULL games started being "digital download only" then they may do it, but most people I know wouldn't do it. Hell, most people I know wouldn't buy madden at all if they couldn't get it on EBAY or buy it used.

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?

I am in no way an EA apologists(look at my previous posts lol), but we can't get into what ifs. What if I had a million bucks? I wouldn't be concerned with EA trying to take advantage of consumers. Let's kep the what ifs out. Having said that, I highly doubt you would ever have to pay for patches since they "fix" things that are broken in the game. That would be like me selling you a toyota and then charging you to fix the accelerator that gets stuck. I don't think that would ever happen.

[Valdarez]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

Most years, I would agree with this, but 10 was not traded in as much as the previous versions of the game (probably because it was HALF decent). Do I have a chart to tell me this? nope. I did, however, drive to 3 different gamestops in my area looking for it used months after I traded it in and couldn't find it. One gamestop employee said they don't get too many in and when they do, they go pretty fast.

I agree with you on this one. I have bought Madden used since 2005 and the NFL Exclusivity deal. I typically buy NCAA when Madden is released for $25 off eBay, and then wait roughly 4 week and pay $25 for Madden. This time I waited 2 to 4 weeks (sorry don't know exactly) after Madden was released and still had to pay $35 for NCAA, and I waited until mid-October to buy Madden and had to pay $35 for Madden. Used game prices in general are up, but IMHO this is a sign of the economic times, where folks are trying to save money because it's true across the board for used games, not just Madden. If you need proof, GameStop's had one of their biggest years last year, and that's not due to GameStop's 'quality' service or prices, I'm sure many here have had negative GameStop experiences to one level or another (typically with preOrders).

As for the person's comment on Peter Moore being an excellent capitalist. Peter Moore is the perfect example of an exec who cares nothing for his customer base. He showed that at Microsoft, and he's continued the trend at EA Sports. He'll make the company money, but screw over the gamers in the process. EA Sports image was tainted by the NFL Exclusivity deal and continues to be tarnished with Peter Moore at the helm.

[kjcheezhead]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

Wow!! This thread is full of firsts for me. This is the first time I've disagreed with KJcheezhead. Having said that.....

I am in no way an EA apologists(look at my previous posts lol), but we can't get into what ifs. What if I had a million bucks? I wouldn't be concerned with EA trying to take advantage of consumers. Let's kep the what ifs out. Having said that, I highly doubt you would ever have to pay for patches since they "fix" things that are broken in the game. That would be like me selling you a toyota and then charging you to fix the accelerator that gets stuck. I don't think that would ever happen.

Lol, nice to know someone agrees with me most of the time. My wife would probably advise against it tho.

I guess I said "what if" because how do you prove a company is doing that? It took til when, December for patch #2? I know I held off on trading it in on the hopes that patch might save the game for me. It was half decent like you said. Still bothers me to think they would have a patch ready and hold onto it for a month like an ace in the hole and I can see them charging for 3rd or 4th patches. They just wouldn't be called patches anymore, they'd be "upgrades".

[Joborule]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

bring it up with those who were there.

the pm was saved but no longer exists because maddenmania no longer exists.

if he doesn't care to admit ian told him this as he explained to me, then so be it. not a big deal to me if you believe it or not, it's what i was told and that's all there is to it.

take it or leave it.

It's easy to fabricate stuff on the forums. So I'm not going to talk about it any further, but I'm fairly certain that the person who claimed to know back at community day didn't know. Either that or your making stuff up.

The best grasp of knowing about the feature then is when Phil asked us to guess what the feature was without confirming or denying if we're right...

[killgod]

Re: EA Sports Plans To Digitize Madden 11 Consumer (IGN)

It's easy to fabricate stuff on the forums. So I'm not going to talk about it any further, but I'm fairly certain that the person who claimed to know back at community day didn't know. Either that or your making stuff up.

The best grasp of knowing about the feature then is when Phil asked us to guess what the feature was without confirming or denying if we're right...

Well I'm not saying this if is truth or not, simply repeating what he told me in the PM.

What he did say certainly fits the EA/Peter Moore attitude, so is it possible for truth? Well, why not?

Ask an OS owner if they can access the old MM forum data, I'd bet my life and everything I own against it being told to me. Probably a fair amount of work over something trivial, but I assure you it was said. He could have just been blowing smoke for all I know.

Check with your "bros" from CD, maybe someone will admit to saying it, maybe not...again I don't care if it's admitted or if you believe it. It doesn't neccessarily mean it was annouced to all the guys who went to the CD, it was told in confidence to him from what I recall the PM stating.



What do I gain from making this up? I'm not on some tirade claiming it's true, just stating what he told me, nothing more. I'm not deathprovider77 running a hate parade against EA.

There's nothing in it for me to make something like this up, but whatever bro, say what you will.