EA's Exclusive Access

Exclusive club/sub logic at work

You know that recent EA deal that was talked about, and its about ready to launch call EA Access? Yeah, I'm not so happy with it. Its not a terrible deal or anything, though I do suspect their generous "on the house" origin offers will magically fade as this plan settles in, but we're never promised that to begin with and the service sounds solid. Its like EA's version of PlayStation Plus. That would sound rather limiting, but honestly EA is among several non-console publishers that could do this sort of thing and convince some to get in on it. Not me, because as I've said in my PvZ:GW article I've been quite uncaring for EA and their current game line-up. However that's all irrelevant for the problem I see... starting with the announcement that NFL 2015 will have an exclusive Demo for EA access subscription members.

Now I could also talk about Sony's statement, and I do see that as an issue to. However that's like telling a super hero he was harsh on a villain... you see a glimpse of the hero maybe going too far with something, but he still did the job of making a bad move suffer, and ultimately it may not have bothered you anyways. I think Sony was stupid to come out and tell me what they think is a good value for me, but on the other hand I wasn't interested in EA's offer anyways and by making it less accessible it may keep the tides of potetial terror down. The obvious elephant in the room is one simple question: Do you trust publishers with handling your subscriptions right? For most people the answer should probably be a "No!". Now some are loyal and trusting of some publishers, including myself. Many are subscribers to Sony because they loved the service they offerend, and that among other things have earned our trust. Some people love Nintendo and would trust them with their wallets. Some trust 2K games. I even know a guy that loves about everything Ubisoft does and reviews all their games they put out, despite all the "evil" things they do that most despise (though personally I'd call ubisoft the lesser of the 3 worst evils with EA and Activision being the others). So don't get me wrong, there are pockets of trust left. I personally love most of what comes out of Sony and Bethesda personally. However a subscription plan... that might be stretching it a bit. Especially when you already have a game themed one like Battlefield Premium, and on top of that to access all of this you need an Xbox subscription as well. Combine that with PS+, maybe an MMO subscription, and say ubisoft or Activision pile in as well, and gaming start to look more like an extra electric bill. Of course that's all fine if the value is good and nothing is lost, but will that really be the case? The real problem here is that those subscriptions will likely be needed to resume your gaming as you ordinarily do.

Now add "premium service" alongside pre-order cuts

In an industry in which where we've been forced to get used to watching content cut for quick DLC, minor scale microtransactions in retail game, pre-order bonuses, "limited edition" codes, and even season pass exclusives in some cases. Not all games suffer from terrible cases of cut content. Actually its ironically the biggest popular games that have it the worst, as if they're paranoid to lose a cent or testing just how much they can get away with. Games like those out of Bethesda, Fromsoftware, and the smaller ubisoft titles still don't do this kind of stuff. However a decent portion of the industry does, and the last thing we need is seeing them hold subscription content away in addition to pre-orders, and pre-planned or even cut DLC content. Its already happening with EA access as they have a demo planned to be help exclusive or timed to subscribers, because its easier to take than it is for them to give. If that wasn't the case all our pre-order bonuses would have been soundtracks, posters, or tarrot cards rather than in game content. Instead we exist in an industry that makes you pre-order or think fast to get to the Ranger difficulty mode on Metro. I don't think publisher have earned our trust to do this subscription crap all over the place. I'm getting a bit tired of seeing content chopped up, no matter how small.

So can we please not try to support this supposed "service"? Its not a service to suddenly cut demos back out of the market and charge people an annual or monthly toll. Sure its 8 cents a day, but Madden 14's demo was 0 a day and didn't ask for my EA account and credit card at all. I don't think anyone wants to see this spread. EA's already depending on Microsoft's xbox for this, and that is already like $10 of sub fees (and the die-hards of BF are paying more with premium) and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that's a narrow field enough to suggest that it stands a chance of not doing so great... even from a big publisher that prints millions each time they release a game. We didn't need EA "access" to access their content before, and we don't need it now. Lets make a stand here and say no.

Overthrown!