EA and Gamestop Team Up For Season Pass?

To make a game classis, You need work, creativity, fanatic professional vocation. Many EA frenchises are missing these.

Certainly, it is easier to believe fictions, easier to explain things are not true and accept games are not good.

A game becomes an instant classic for various reasons: lack of saturation in the market, overall rating, innovation, longetivity, "cult-like" following. Sports games don't generally become instant classics, unless it's the first ((see NBA Live 95) or last of it's kind in the series (see 2K5 football).

Now you're the one talking gibberish, and your biased is showing, and I'm really done with you because it's like having a conversation with a middle schooler.

"Speaking from a high horse", preaching overweeningly, your style is childish. I guess '6 figures' means You are a rich man. Sorry about my text incorrections, I am from the EU. The reason is obvious for this Season Pass, as U have unpacked that nicely. I just wanted to enlight that a pricedrop is not enough to sell games.

Why is GOW an instant classic? Why Nba Live 09 not? Both are 60$. Nba live never shall be outstanding, just because EA release it yearly? Is that a good reason? Why EA think that all games can be a milking-cow-yearly-re-released-sims-game?

EA tried to build strong frenchises in the last years, but many of them are not competitive. Nba live, C&C or the latest Need for speed, which had 50% from IGN today. U R a lucky man with lots of money, so U can buy all these mediocre games. Enjoy them, my friend.

The point I'm making is had the 2K5 lineup (to include 2K5 football) at $19.99 compared to NBA Live 05/Madden 05 at $49.99 with both games being good. Had 2K5 at that particular time had chosen not to do the price reduction, the game would have probably kept only it's hardcore base and not introduced a new following. Had 2K taken this approach with APF, then that franchise would probably still be around today, same thing for college hoops. With today's times, gamers want a sure thing, and they are going to go with what they know, and not take the chance on something, even if it is improved. To them, it's not worth the $60 gamble and to only get $25 on a trade in, to only buy the game they think they should have got in the first place. Are you following me? By making a game $30, its not seen as much a risk, and there would be more curiosity for the game, as consumers will be more willing to 1) take the risk in buying a lower priced product and 2) more research will be done on this particular item, thus highlighting new features. This isn't directed at users of this site. People seem to be pretty informed on here with regards to features of the game and what not. I'm talking about the average video game consumer.

Let me know once NBA 2K9 reaches over 800,000 games sold, or NBA Live reaches over 660,000 games old for this year. Both games have sold great at the beginning, but I doubt it will continue to hold up this momentum.

As for other software sales. GOW2 and other games that aren't yearly releases are instant classics and novelty games that are MUST haves. There are plenty of gamers who allocate their funds to a particular set of games per year (i.e. Gears of War 2, GTV IV, Fable 2, Metal Gear). Those types of games never really feel the effects of the economic times as these games are not saturated in the market with various versions of the game.

One final note, business does exists for costumers, but it also exists for CUSTOMERS. For someone bragging about being a "university graduated economist" you don't know the difference between "costume" (one who makes makes or supplies costumes, as for plays or masquerades" or a "customer" (ones that buys goods or services).

Well I'm off to D.C. for a business trip, because unlike you, I'm 6 figures and I actually know how things work buddy ;)

From the mentioned Gamestats homepage: Press score 7.8; Gamer score 7.4. I admit it, it is a good game.

According to the same site 2k5 had an overall press score 8.4, live 05 got 8.3, so the price-drop was not the only advantage of 2k5.

I never ever wrote down, that live 09 sucks, I just whip EA, Live is not even close to the frenchise I fell in love 10 years ago.

Funny to tell me to learn more about economy, as I am an university graduated economist. Obviously the recession has effect on software sales, but still, quality games like GOW2 had a 1.5 million first week.
Or more accurately, 2k9 sales are 40% better, than 2k8 last year, nba live 09 sales are 15% better, than live 08 last year. Maybe I am more aware of facts, as You believe.

And one last important thing. All this business exists for costumers, costumers are free to criticize games.

ReignMan, actually the reviews on NBA on Live with the exception of 2-3 reviewers were actually in the 80% mark.

http://www.gamestats.com/objects/142/14241215/a...

ReignMan, like I said you have a personal opinion on NBA Live and that's fine, but reviewers in general rate the game as a good game overall.

As for NCAA's engine and NBA Live's engine. It's called lessons learned. There will be stuff applied from one engine to the other and vice versa, while at the same time catering to the atmosphere and styles of each level (Pro and Colliegate)

And yes, the price of games do effect buyers. Look back at 2005 for 2K. EA had highly rated games across the board; however, with 2K bringing out a $19.99 price it was able to be successful in terms of games sold.

I like how you just happen to generalize something to suite your opinion Reignman without facts supporting it. People do buy games based off reputation (Look at NBA 2K9, how much information was released on that game...very little and look at the sales).

I'm looking at this from an unbiased prospective, Reignman, you're obviously showing your biased and that's fine, you support 2K9 which is a good game, but just because Live doesn't appeal to you, doesn't make it a bad game, especially when reviewers are giving it good reviews overall.

As for sales. We are in a recession, people are spending less. Many people are going to stick with what they know, which has been that 2K9 has provided a better overall game in this generation. It's not that "Costumers are not stupid" as you said, it's that they aren't going to spend $60 on a game that in the past has been a complete let down, whereas with 2K they've had higher ratings during this new generation.

Obviously this concept is hard for you to grasp, which is fine, I expect you to rebute and say that Live sucks, sales, this and that, but facts are facts my friend. I also recommend you learn on our current state of the economy and see that people are spending less on consumables and entertainment overrall. OK?

Now that is out of the way. I hope this does pan out in terms of lower prices. Pasta as you said, it will probably bring people into their second tier of games (i.e. Nascar). If this would be released before Fight Night Round 4, you can guarantee high sales, especially after the let down of Facebreaker and Prize Fighter and to complete against the future UFC game.

If they lower the price, without making a quality game, they only have casual players, no real fanbase.

The reviews of Live 09 were not good, a 70-75% mark is not graceful from a ~12 years old frenchise.

Win or go home. That is what the sales shows. 85% of the hoop-gamers are buying just 1 NBA game a year, unlike You do. Even Live is the second best NBA game on the market, with solid benefits, thats not good here.

As EA has the NCAA frenchise, it does not automatically means, that Live shall be better, they may split their forces, and will have less time to achive.

Costumers are not stupid, even with a bad reputation, NBA Live 09 would have better sales, if it were a better game.... It is like if I have something, like a watch, I wont buy a second one, just because it is cheap...

And just once again: lower prices are not bringing back the fan-base, especially not, when the PC version of 2k9 costs only 20 dollars...

@ReignMan. NBA Live 09 (keep in mind I also have 2K9 and think 2K was a better overall game) was still a good game. They have definitely improved over the last 2 years and I expect they will do even more now that they can work double time with NCAA 09 using the same engine and already improved on that gameplay and added more animations.

What NBA Live 09 is doing now, is what 2K did before and that is to not re-invent the wheel. What makes 2K good IMO is it's ability to add and make subtle changes to its game play every year. They have been using the same enginge for 5 years now. NBA Live has basically used this engine since Live 2008. As I stated, Live 09 was a good game, but still has a way to catch up with 2K in terms of game play, but there areas where Live shines over 2K (graphics, online play, practice modes).

ReignMan, I know you don't like NBA Live, and you prefer 2K. That's your opinion, I respect it, 2K suits you better, but Live was received well, got good reviews by the gaming community. Live's short sales this year I believe were based off previous releases and it's reputation. In order to repair that reputation they needs to lower the prices of the games to bring back people and to give Live another chance. That "solution" I brought up, was not to sell more games, but rather bring back the NBA Live base.

Gameplay in itself will get better. It has gotten better and will continue to do so. As I stated, now they are working double time with the same engine on two games. The innovation is there with 365, DNA and online play, those factors will continue maturing.

Where Live really needs to put a lot of their focus on (other than online play) is a solid Dynasty mode for longetivity and some sort of innovation. This is where I think 2K is light years ahead of Live. Live has a better dynasty interface, but 2K has a ton of depth here.

Live needs to also add on to it's Be a Pro mode, and make it into a true superstar mode and integrate the academy into it.

I have no doubts that Live will continue in the right direction as I've seen it over the last couple of years, but it needs to think about the consumer and re-energizing it's base and that's where the lower prices comes back in.

@ JR (cabrillo24):

Yes, JR, another "businessman way of thinking" solution from EA to sell games, but I have a better idea, put this money back to develop a quality NBA game, and people are gonna kill each other to buy it (including me...).

EA is like a strange company, 80% of their employees are PR experts and the rest of them are code-ing.

WHAT? There will be a second coming for the Facebreaker after its tremendous fall? R they out of their mind?

If this is valid and true, 20 dollars is LOL for this pass, can not be so cheap, EA would lose millions of dollars, it should cost at least 80 dollars, otherwise it is simply not worth it.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.ph...

wow pasta owned me. hopefully NFL tour is on next years release list.

@ JR (cabrillo24):

Yeah thats a good point. It would be one way to effectively lower the cost of the secondary games without doing it officially, which as I've stated may be prohibited by the contract they have with the NBA. Where EA would see the benefits of a program such as this would be with those secondary games that they wouldn't have purchased otherwise but would now consider thanks to the discount.

@Jay and @Pasta, I think this move would help EA a lot. Pasta and I have been discussing the 2K5 strategy of marking their lineup at $19.99 per game, thus changing the EA dominance it had once enjoyed. From what Pasta has been saying, it's very likely that the NBA (if not other sports) requires that all NBA licensed games be set at a standard price. If this is the case, then having a discount program such as this would help NBA Live in sales tremendously. NBA Live 2010 brand new could go for $39.99, not to mention all the deals that GameStop/Ebgames gives for pre-ordering and trade-ins. You could possibly get NBA Live 2010 or other games for around $29.99 - $35 when you factor in other deals and promotions (if they allow this).

NBA Live 2009 was a good game, was reviewed well, but hasn't surpassed or caught up with 2K yet. NBA Live continues to improve its game play, but there are features it MUST add on (NCAA - Live uploads, HoF/Superstar Mode) , but most importantly in my opinion a drastic price reduction (possibly through this possible deal with GameStop/Ebgames since Pasta is leaning towards EA and other companies requiring that the games be set at $60).

If this is the case, this would be a great deal as I just about buy every sports game out there (with the exception of 2K baseball, I prefer MLB the Show too much to try anything else).

Pasta

One reason I could see this being a valid strategy for EA is that once you've roped sport gamers into buying the pass, they are likely to choose the cheaper (with the pass) EA games over the competition. Personally the only 2 games I play on my PS3 are Madden and NBA 2K games. If buying this pass would let me get Madden and NBA Live for less money, that could be the deciding factor between Live and 2K.

@ Justin tuck:

Did you even read the article??? I noted a couple reasons why (the savings vs cost and the games listed) I doubted its validity.

UEFA Euro... okay, I'll get this pass, wait until it's 2012, and ask for a 20 dollar discount... Might be fun if the game were to cost 15 dollars

i was just playing madden and was in the pro bowl and i think they need to add (or bring back) players team helmets

YES! NFL Head Coach 2010! so happy right now, for real I'm so excited

@ mike:
phil frazier made a mention of it a few weeks back...and he noted that some of the head coach developers were moving over to work on the dynasty mode in madden 2010 as well...it was more of a i'm going to hear about it for telling you this comment on the madden forums...

Looks bogus.

this is fake. could Pasta be an EA fanboy anymore?

oh wait....he's getting paid to post this propaganda and getting free games to boot.

ea giving back? what? answer is no. this is most likely just an excuse for ea to us to stop complaining. now if we get the pass the games will be cheaper and the pass will be paid for after the first purchased game, therefore it gives us less incentive to give a bad review and poke holes in all of these games testing level errors that somehow make it through to the final product. if its in the game its probably not in this one. that should have been the slogan for years.

also this is pretty big for the company of ea leading the way with working with gamestop personally putting their games forward instead of gamestop doing this with all companies. ea has been trying to quietly make a monopoly for years and this is another quiet step like buying nfl rights and trying to take out the superior 2k developer (paying attention to detail folks). they dont believe in competition either because then they would simply try to create better games to rival the good ones, when we get barely any improvements every year. this can also be true with ea trying to buy whatever piece of a decent game they can (not just sports anymore) to get there name in the production title therefore we associate the game with ea and think they are good. when in fact all they did was spend some cash that should be going into their own games in order to buy your trust in their falsely advertised games(espn integration has been a promised feature, and so far it has been an utter joke) but thats what monopolies did way back in the past.. rip people off. i know its publicly owned but still whoever is pulling the strings that are taking away from our games.. cut that shit out.

this thing is fake. i can make a coupon like that using photoshop

gamestop sucks.

@ Jonathon:


Where did you get the confirmation that nfl head coach 2010 is not in the works.

im with rondoman.... i posted this in the morrow post, but never heard back. im posting again.

@ pasta

i dont think you are in the pocket of EA, but it is a joke how u do continue to try and find the pluses of Live and the negatives of 2k.

besides the sales figures post, you havent posted anything positive about 2k, despite the fact it is the superior game. and even in that post, you took a dig about the online problems. and that problem has been fixed to an extent, and to many (as proven by the comments on your own website) isnt that big of a deal.

you never reviewed 2k. at all. despite telling us that you were going to give 2k its coverage once you had the game. i dont care if you ‘rate’ the game or whatever, thats your preference, and i understand why. but to not even cover the game in total is insulting to your readers who value your opinion and doubt that you’re biased.

yes, EA is much better supplying you with their product pre-ship date, allowing you to analyze it, play it more, etc. so all those early posts about live are deserved. it had your attention, it was pre-release date, and you didnt have 2k, so all the information was relevant to us. but 2k has been out for over a month now. you should have plenty of time to give it ample play and provide us with your feedback and opinions.

basically the coverage since release has been extremely lopsided. plain and simple. and any positive 2k post seems to have negative spin or a dig, subliminally or not.

i just feel that considering the game is by almost all accounts the superior product, and factually, the much higher selling game, that there should be more coverage on it. more people have the game, more people like the game, it would be helpful to us if you actually talked about the game.

im not trying to come hard at you pasta. this is still an excellent site, i have it bookmarked, and im still an avid fan. but realisitically speaking, the nba coverage has truly seemed biased, and the shear number of posts has been completely lopsided. and as i said, based on the sales numbers, that shouldnt be the case.

Pasta, I am not even sure that they are making a NASCAR game either. Last I head EA did not renew the exclusive license with NASCAR and my guess is another company will jump on it. EA never patched any of the major bugs that plagued the 360 version of it and thats why my copy went back to gamestop.

Hey Pasta,

I think there are still a bunch of us wondering one question that you seem to keep dodging.

Where are your NBA 2K9 impressions that are about a month overdue now???

sounds sketchy...especially since some of these games (NFL Head Coach 2010) have already been confirmed as being not in the works for next year...

@pasta

dew U B gittin 1 OF deez 4 FREE? HOLLA atcha BOI

RESPEK MY GANGSTA

umm...it looks fake?

they will profit, as usual, because most people do not buy 3 EA sports titles a year.

you'll be stuck with that third game that you normally wouldn't buy, therefore you would save more by not joining.

don't be fooled by the evil EA empire! =)

great, so when will they start making good games?

This would be a great deal for almost anyone. I agree though that if EA or Gamestop didn't put it out there, and seeing just how much we'd all save, there's a good chance it's too good to be true. Thanks for passing it along though Pasta.

I'm in if it's a real deal.

I think this is a pretty sick deal....im definetley getting this bcuz the only sports games i buy are from ea sports bcuz they have the best graphics and the smoothest gameplay

Sounds like a good deal I mean 33%. Nice.

i guess that means there makin another head coach

man im entering this

That would be a good deal. If this is verified does this mean that EA, which will essentially be selling the games at a cheaper price, devote less time to the development and improvement of these titles?