Compose post - NFGworld!

2008-04-12, 23:27

Member since Oct 2007 · 196 posts
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That's the thing. I completely expect EA to overcharge when they can. That's part of why I won't buy from them. That they're using cheap (and inconsistent) excuses to justify why they're charging the EU region more doesn't induce rage in me because I don't expect anything more from those clowns.

2008-04-10, 22:33

Member since Nov 2007 · 120 posts
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Mmmkay, the point is not that I was ever going to buy or not buy it. The point is the obscene price.

Take your personal bias against EA out of the equation (I don't know, who do you like, Sega? Nintendo? NEC? Imagine it's them) for a few minutes and read my post again.

The main problem:
UK price = US$355
US price = US$169

The UK price is 210% of the US price for a 6 month release delay and 9 extra songs which probably won't remain exclusive for very long anyway.

Illegal? Obviously not.
Severely immoral? Absolutely.

I wonder what someone like a UK/EU retail authority would have to say about that mark-up.

"...either stop and think or fuck right off" (TheOutrider)

(Administrator) 2008-04-10, 10:19

User title: Top Chaos Wrangler
Member since Sep 2007 · 1755 posts · Location: Brisbane, AU
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You make good points, however:

Locking up the exclusivity with the NFL was a great move on EA's part. It was STUPID on the part of the NFL, and it was a terrible move from a player's POV. Sega's football games were largely regarded as superior, but without the NFL license they hadn't a chance at competing.

My beef with EA is the way they've become a symbol of all that's wrong with modern games: Unskippable EA splash screens, shitty games and no impetus to change because, after all, they're the #1 monster player. Red Alert 2, one of my favourite games, was rendered unplayable by intensely shitty network code penalizing all player when one guy had a slow connection, and dragging the game to a screeching halt whenever someone had the gall to drop a nuke and the network traffic spiked.

They buy developers and crush them (though they're making talk about changing this now...).

They ruin things, and that's why I won't buy their games.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/system/arcade/special.php/b-d/bp-5/y-kof97/z-10/x-She told me she was 18!/.png]

2008-04-10, 09:46

Member since Oct 2007 · 196 posts
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To say at least one thing on topic, I really dislike how Electronic Arts is milking the Rock Band franchise. It's a winner of a gaming concept, but the dependence on specialized hardware means that they can reel you in and empty your wallet in a way that actively gets in the way of buying other games. Price-gouging Europe is just one symptom of this problem.

My problem with EA isn't trendy or shallow. My very first objection was with buggy software during the Genesis/Megadrive era, which they worked very hard to cover up. That the Ultima Collection was released with missing files was bad, but that their tech support denied that a problem existed was criminal. Actively working against the Dreamcast helped shorten the life of one of my favorite game consoles. The exclusivity contract with the National Football League in the United States was a sad and unsurprising act by a company that fears its competitors and doesn't think its own products can stand on their own.

The opposing view is that gamers should be drawn to the game, and that the publisher is irrelevant. My view is that the market is saturated and there's enough quality product that I'm not missing out by actively steering away from EA products. They don't get money from me until they make good on the things they've done wrong, and apologize to the people they've exploited.

(Administrator) 2008-04-10, 09:03

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Quote by Kendrick:
I'm certainly sympathetic if you're unhappy. But my attitude is, this is an Electronic Arts product. I won't buy it at any price.

You see? I KNEW I liked you for a reason.

I accidentally bought an EA game when I bought Crysis last year. In my defense I sold it 2 weeks after buying it, so I'm clean again, right?

Right?

2008-04-10, 08:00

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I'm certainly sympathetic if you're unhappy. But my attitude is, this is an Electronic Arts product. I won't buy it at any price.

2008-04-10, 02:13

Member since Nov 2007 · 120 posts
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Subject: EUR Rock Band to launch at the obscene price contained within

Bear in mind that the X360 and PS3 versions have been out since November, the PS2 version since December.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/uk-rock-band-release…

This is a joke, right?

£180 in the UK, but $169 in the US.

That's even £11 overpriced considering the traditional £1:$1 exchange rate that games companies seem to have always misguidedly used, but for it to supposedly come to retail at an expected 355 US Dollars (source xe.com) must be some sort of belated April Fool.

My take on it:

This is an argument for importing if ever there was one and if people living in PAL land haven't already bitten the bullet and done themselves a big favour.

The interminable wait for an official UK/Eur version while English language versions are already readily available in other countries is the main why I've imported to the UK since SNES days. The great thing about this generation and the last is that as the GB£ has increased in strength and the internet has increased in popularity, the days of £60+ imports have all but disappeared and bargain prices on new games can be regularly had, especially if you buy multiple games at once to save on postage.

This week I bought 4 Wii and 2 DS games (5 US and 1 Japan) and a Wii Nunchuk all together for £150 from an online store (not an auction website). All new and unopened. Going by game.co.uk the total recommended retail price for the 5 US games and accessory comes to £190. If you go into a shop in the UK, you will 90% of the time be paying the RRP because there aren't any independent games retailers worth visiting any more. The Japanese DS game is available at a local importer for £35 making £225 total. Why would you bother to pay more than 50% more for UK versions of games, after months of waiting for it to be translated into French, German, Finnish, Danish, etc and with the continued risk that console versions may not even support 60Hz mode in many cases? There's simply no point.

And so, releasing this game at that price is quite plainly an insult and gives no credit to anyone in the UK for being able to open their eyes, refuse to pay that much and simply not buy it. Sadly this has the knock-on effect that anything a bit outside the box at a high price gets low sales figures even in this large retail area, so in future anything a bit different doesn't get released in Europe. It's a vicious circle, but publishers are pricing themselves out of any future sales by releasing game sets at ridiculous prices such as this.

I'm sure you could buy the albums featuring the 9 extra songs for significantly less than US$186 too.

"...either stop and think or fuck right off" (TheOutrider)

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