EA Access - You Almost Got My Money

Almost...

by James Thomas
Gaming Article

EA Access - You Almost Got My Money
I was ready to hand over my money.
With just the headline announcement of EA Access for Xbox One I was ready to fish out my credit card and sign up with the publisher’s new subscription game service. For just £3.99 a month (or £19.99 annually) I’d have instant access to FIFA 14, Madden 14, Battlefield 4 and the glorious Peggle 2, with further titles to come down the line. For far less than the cost of one brand new game it would grant me the chance to play some of the publisher’s flagship franchises there and then. It all seemed like a great deal.

And then I began to notice the small print. After popping on my reading glasses I put away my credit card.

I originally had visions of this being a glorious, rolling, all-inclusive deal. A subscription service that would pull in the likes of FIFA 15 and Dragon Age: Inquisition as they were released and fueling my hope of a push towards a disc-less future. All that was a little naïve, however; rather than giving you new releases your monthly contribution would earn you only early access and a 10% discount off “most” EA games and DLC. Rather than being a gaming Netflix, the more I read the more it came across as a premium EA fan club.

EA Access - You Almost Got My Money

Yet the odd sensation I have, even after digesting all of this, is that I am somehow bitter that I can’t give them my money. Especially odd seeing how I’ve given them more than enough recently what with having bought most of the games associated with EA Access. I saw this as a chance to actually free myself of the deliberation of whether I should get FIFA this year, is Battlefield worth a punt on with friends, or even considering getting to grips with a digital defensive line again. I am ready for a service that drops these games onto my hard drive and just lets me play. I want that future and for that privilege and convenience I’d be happy to spend at least triple of what EA Access has been quoted at, too, if not more.

Of course giving such a slew of games away would hurt their bottom line. FIFA is a consistent seller and losing the impact of those sales would hurt should it become wrapped in a monthly payment plan. No executive is going to want to lose that mammoth pay day every September but I do feel it could have its advantages, too. I’d argue that signing up for such a service makes you more blasé towards how much you’re spending.

A few pounds a month, a spread payment, can easily be buried in the accounts and it would definitely make me consider playing FIFA Ultimate Team or purchasing Battlefield 4 Premium. I have huge issues with a game that gets me to spend £40 plus on it and then keeps barracking me to spend more on extra maps or virtual Panini stickers, but I could see myself being far more amenable to forking out extra to a game whose cost is almost forgotten.

EA Access - You Almost Got My Money

I’ve already experienced that with PlayStation Plus, Sony’s own game subscription service that joyfully drip feeds me content on both PS4 and Vita. Over the last few months it has handed me the bizarre Doki Doki Universe and the intriguing Don’t Starve completely free. Quite often I get so used to them feeding me games on a monthly basis that I simply download them out of habit and horde them only remembering they exist weeks later, with these however not only did I play them but I found myself looking through the Sony Store for DLC. Having paid nothing for them I felt far more open to handing the devs money for more content. There was a barrier that had been removed by not having paid directly for the game originally.

You can see that in marketing strategies too as Awesomenauts, also a PlayStation Plus freebie, had content on the store not long after its release no doubt to cash in on similar urges. There’s a potential there for EA to upsell those games that it includes in the Access catalogue, taking a hit on the initial sale with the hope that costs can be pulled back with premium content and the hope of tying in users long term to the franchise.

And that’s of course why they’ve done it. All the games included with EA Access debuted in 2013 and are long into their tail of sales. This is the company’s way of extracting what remaining value exists before the inevitable sequels trundle out in only a matter of weeks, potentially hooking in a few more sales with the allure of a discount as they go. The value of this proposition lies firmly with EA and holds little for the dedicated Madden or Battlefield player. A £20 annual fee to get a fiver off FIFA 15 and five days head start holds little water with me.

Though let us not forget that there are more than ourselves out there.

EA Access - You Almost Got My Money

Those who it may sway are the future waves of Xbox One owners. We who own the hardware, who got in early, who got in when there was no sane reason to do so other than to say we were there on day one are of course going to shout down EA’s proposition and point out the flaws. Those who arrive in subsequent years however may not.

Those who are waiting for a far more reasonable price, who aren’t concerned with keeping up with the Jones’, and who just want to play games and don’t care when they came out are probably a better target. FIFA and Madden will always suffer from roster changes but with the prospect of Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Criterion’s unnamed racing game, Mirror’s Edge, and Star Wars Battlefront, a six-month delay to any of them being released on a subscription service will make them no less of a game. If in two years’ time I could hand you a rolling deal for just £20 that included the likes of those would you turn it down?

Whilst it may not have been their intended target I can see it fitting well within that demographic, those who sit and wait for a bargain, but until they come along we have much to see. How long will it take this autumn’s crop of releases to reach EA Access being the biggest question on my mind? For until I can guarantee the sub gets me day one access then I’ll be trundling down to GAME like the rest of them.

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