EA is taking nickel and diming to a whole new level
Matt Hawkins It would appear that one of gaming’s largest and most successful publisher is hard up for money in the worst pay possible given all the wacky things they’re trying to pull, just this week alone.
Where to start? First of all, they’ve re-released a popular game of theirs on the iPhone so it’s a cheaper initial price, but the real money is being made via in-app purchases and a subscription. So something that’s just $0.99 initially may cost $29.99 a year, if EA had it their way. Pretty lame, huh?
And what game is this? The iPhone version of Battlefield? Madden? Dragon Age? Nope… it’s Tetris. Yes, Tetris. The simple block puzzle game that pretty much ever single device has been running for over twenty years now, and which epitomizes gaming with zero bells and whistles. According to Destructoid, EA has supposedly found tweaks to the formula that justifies the extra cash that they’re demanding.
But it gets better! They’re also re-releasing the PC classic Theme Park, but instead of using resource management skills to build up your very own Disneyland, as in the original, EA has apparently rigged it that doing so the old fashioned way takes forever, according to the Games Blog, and the preferred method is by forking over actual cash to build stuff. Okay, but the actual cost is the most ridiculous part: just one rollercoaster (one of the cheaper ones) will cost you $60. Again, in REAL money.
Then you have their Online Pass making the news once again. As noted many times already, it’s designed to eek as much money out of their games as possible, from the secondary market. But get this: they apparently expire. Which means, even if you bought something new, you’ll still need to pay extra money for everything. What an f’n rip.
Joystiq tried contacting EA to get clarification, and they basically said that no Online Pass should expire… but some do anyway. Gee, thanks. BTW, I just checked… I got the game ages ago, and it would seem that I had forgotten to redeem its pass at the time. So I guess I’m SOL. lol.
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