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[Column] EA Access Is A Pretty Good Deal

EA Access is a side-service available for Xbox One that trades a subscription for access to numerous Electronic Arts titles. $5 monthly or $30 annually grants access to the EA Vault, a number of full games, and ten hour trials of games that recently released or in many cases haven’t been released yet. There are other perks that have shown up, like a 10% discount to EA titles when buying digitally, occasional sales, and more likely on the way.

As someone who doesn’t exactly play many of EA’s games, I bought into the annual subscription with some doubts. After a few months of using the service, I am confident that it has paid itself off between the free games and free trials, and I wanted to offer my experience because a cursory glance around the web shows numerous people having the same reaction I did: “A subscription to play EA games? What a ripoff!” As I’ve learned covering MMOs, the very presence of a subscription service tends to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths, especially when stacked on top of another subscription (in this case Xbox Live).

And let’s be clear about one thing, I’m not saying that this service is for everyone. For some, EA Access will objectively offer nothing of value, and I make that clear in my points below. For everyone else, it’s a matter of weighing costs and benefits, and I promise not to dive into the though processes of “at $2.50 a month, you can’t afford not to subscribe!” This article specifically covers the Xbox version of EA Access.

1. If You Like Sports Games…

Let’s be fair, the girth of sports titles in the EA Access vault is because Electronic Arts knows exactly how quickly sales drop after a new Madden or NHL game releases, but if you’re a sports fan on a budget then $30 a year to play all of the previous year’s sports titles isn’t a bad deal at all. Right now a subscription gets you access to Madden 16, FIFA 15, NBA Live 15, NHL 15, Madden 15, EA Sports UFC, Madden 25, and FIFA 14. Three football, two soccer, one basketball, hockey, and MMA fighting.

The inclusion of Madden NFL 16 to the list last month is probably a sign that you won’t have to wait until the next game in the series is out in order to keep up with your sports rosters, you’ll probably just have to wait for the sales to diminish to within the margin of error. If you consider pricing, $30 for a year to play a number of sports titles, so long as you’re willing to be six or seven months behind the latest release, isn’t a bad deal. If you do buy the current sports titles, EA Access gives 10% off of those Ultimate Team packs that sell so well according to EA’s reports.

In addition, you have UFC 2, NBA Live 16, FIFA 16, NHL 16, and Rory Mcilroy PGA tour available as ten hour trials, so in addition to the previous year’s sports titles you also have access to a fair amount of play on the current list of games to give you an idea on whether or not you want to buy up. And look at it this way, by the time Madden/NHL/FIFA 17 comes out, 16 will probably be playable in the vault for free.

2. 10 Hour Trials

I was surprised to see EA offering ten hour trials on some of their newest games, since it clashes with the push on opening day/week sales being the most crucial to a title’s success. Having some form of trial system makes sense, Playstation Plus offers full game trials in the realm of an hour or so to give a nugget of gameplay and then cut it off while the momentum is still going. And while you might assume that the trials are of older titles or EA Partner games, the list is populated by Star Wars Battlefront, Need for Speed, Unravel, and Plants Vs Zombies 2. In fact, many of these games are pushing ten hour trials before launch day.

A 10 hour trial is risky business; it’s more than enough time for many gamers to burn out on a title they would have bought and lost interest in the same time frame, with the only difference being EA loses on a $60 sale. The presence of very new titles showing up on EA Access can groom customers into putting off pre-ordering to wait for the demo, thus harming game sales even further. Finally, it means that the game has to engage the player on a level that, after the ten hours, they are still willing to go out and pay full price for the title.

I suppose in a way that the game trials could at least improve sales further down the line. Someone who plays the game through the end of the trial period must have liked something about it, otherwise they would have stopped playing by then, and that person might see the game months down the line at $30 and pick it up. It isn’t a full priced sale, but it is a sale nonetheless. Or they’ll just wait for it to hit the EA Access vault.

For me, this function saved me the money of buying Star Wars: Battlefront. After playing a good eight hours of the trial, I’m glad that I didn’t throw down any real money. Sure EA lost a sale, but they saved themselves a disgruntled, disappointed customer for future games.

3. The Vault

I’d be willing to put money down on Dragon Age: Inquisition being a big factor in many EA Access purchases, at least considering the game was added to the vault less than a year after its launch and happens to be the only game apart from Titanfall and Popcap’s games that isn’t part of an annual franchise. The list of titles in the EA Vault are games that the hardcore fans already picked up on day one, meaning the subscription is a way to pick up some revenue from the moderately interested.

Currently the vault includes Madden 16, Battlefield Hardline, Dragon Age: Inquisition, NBA Live 15, FIFA 15, NHL 15, Madden 15, UFC, Titanfall, Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Peggle 2, Need for Speed Rivals, NFL 25, FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, and Plants Vs Zombies. Many of the games on the vault are showing up less than a year after launch, as low as six months and likely well before they hit $30 retail.

The downside is that EA’s vault happens to target a very specific demographic: Shooter and sports fans. If you have no interest in Battlefield/Titanfall or EA Sports, there is literally nothing here for you outside of a couple of Popcap games that can be bought cheap elsewhere and Dragon Age: Inquisition that can likely be picked up pre-owned on the cheap. Since many of the EA Sports titles abandoned the PC platform years ago, they’ve been replaced in the Vault library with the full Dragon Age and Dead Space series, as well as Sim City and This War of Mine. If it weren’t for the annual $30 price being unavailable on PC, I’d say it was a better deal than the Xbox One version.

On another hand, many of the games in EA’s vault play better with the knowledge that you didn’t pay (specifically) for them. No, I’m not technically playing Battlefield 4 for free, but as part of the bundle there isn’t a specific value to attach and say “I spent $x for this?”

4. Sales

I put this one low on the list because it targets a smaller, but growing audience if you read sales numbers: If you buy multiple EA games at launch every year and don’t mind buying digital, EA Access is a bargain. 10% off of digital orders means you’re paying off your annual subscription after five games, not considering any expansions or microtransactions you buy in between, and also not factoring in the free games added to the vault.

EA Origin Fraud Protection May Incur Delays

If you’re looking to make a purchase in the Origin store, you may find your order delayed by up to three days. In a post released today on the Dark Age of Camelot website, Broadsword Entertainment warns that new fraud detection tools may flag purchases depending on several variables including number of codes purchased, resulting in the buyer not receiving their code until the next day.

This timeframe is dependant on the number of codes purchased at once as well as other variables. Most players should still receive their codes within 24 hours, however, it would be a good idea to order any new game time codes 72 hours prior to your account subscription ending if you wish to guarantee no subscription downtime.

Any user whose code isn’t delivered after three days is asked to contact EA’s customer support with the phrase “I did not receive my code after making a purchase on the Origin store. My order# is #####.” The news post warns that any other message could cause the email to be diverted to the DAoC crew, who can’t help with such problems.

(Source: Dark Age of Camelot)

Learn About Guild Wars 2 Animations

Ever had any interest in what goes into animating your favorite characters and bosses? In the latest episode of Guild Chat, Arenanet’s game designers discuss concepts like reusing animation rigs, how to scale bosses up to a larger size, and dealing with animation speeds. The entire video is nearly an hour and has plenty of footage of in-game animations from start to finish.

Diving Into Arc’s Daily Quests, Price of Zen

Earlier this week we learned about Arc 3.0, the latest client update for Perfect World’s library of MMOs. When Arc 3.0 launches, players will be able to complete daily quests to unlock Arc points which can then be redeemed for Zen, Perfect World’s real money currency. But how much are you going to have to grind in order to get that sweet payment? Let’s find out.

According to the above screenshot posted on the Arc 3.0 blog, the bare minimum of Zen (500 Zen worth $5 USD) Zen package will run you 5,000 Arc points. Each level requires 600 experience, and each level grants 500 Arc points. In other words, you need to level up ten times in order to afford the $5 package. With example daily quests running upwards of eight days, you could be looking at quite the time investment for these rewards.

The good news is that the dailies seem to be minimally invasive, simple ideas like log in eight days in a row or just play a specific game on the list. It would be irresponsible and poor business for Perfect World Entertainment to make it too easy to obtain Zen with as little work as the daily quests already seem to ask for, as people would simply use that as a source of income.

Still, we’ll have to see how the quests go when the Arc client launches.

DarkScape Throwing in the Towel: Shutting Down

Jagex today announced the sunsetting of DarkScape, a spinoff of RuneScape. Originally launched as a more combat-focused alternative, DarkScape allowed players to fight each other virtually everywhere in the game world. Unfortunately the game mode just didn’t gain enough traction and, as a result, can’t justify allocating development resources to its continued maintenance. The servers for DarkScape are set to come down on March 28th once and for all.

Today, there’s a small, hardcore community that continues to play DarkScape. Unfortunately, it’s just not big enough to warrant ongoing development. The updates made along the way allowed us to experiment with RuneScape’s PvP gameplay systems, play around with changes to the game economy, and test out major changes to combat and equipment behaviour.

DarkScape was deeply flawed as a concept, despite what the few remaining players will tell you, that couldn’t hold a steady population as players flocked back to RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape modes. You can expect a followup on this later on this week.

(Source: DarkScape)

RuneScape Unveils Free To Play Extravaganza

If you’re a non-paying player in RuneScape, odds are you hear the words “members only” quite often. It isn’t so often that free players receive new content outside of holiday events, and even those have become rather restricted in the past. This month, however, Jagex has unveiled its Free to Play Extravaganza. Starting today, you don’t need to subscribe in order to access a wealth of content, including bosses and combat options.

For starters, the King Black Dragon and Giant Mole can be killed by free players to sell their sweet, sweet loot for extra gold. Keep in mind, however, you can look but you can’t touch. While free players can obtain members loot, their only use is essentially to sell to members who can bury/utilize them.

Free players can now take on the mighty King Black Dragon by getting to his lair via the Wilderness. Only the bravest and best-equipped need apply. The drops, dragon bones and black dragonhides, are now sellable by free players, but can only be buried and processed by members. Note that the Edgeville artefact cannot be used in free-to-play worlds to access to this boss.

Access to dual-wielding, previously a members-only feature, is now freely available as well alongside a number of combat abilities. Dungeoneering has also had an update, increasing the level of gear that players have access to both inside and out of the dungeon.

You can check out the entire update below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Get Free Zen By Using The Arc Client

Arc is Perfect World Entertainment’s answer to Steam, given that it houses their library in an easy to use package and also acts as a conduit through which money flows and goods are redeemed. With Arc 3.0, the next major update to the client, PWE is looking to change the way you log in and perhaps get their players to try some games that they might otherwise look the other way on.

MMO gamers will be no strangers to the concept of daily quests, an idea that is being thrust into the client in its next update. Daily quests will require the player to do things like log into a game, log in for a number of consecutive days, or play a certain game on two separate days. Completing quests gives experience which in turn gains levels, and in turn can be redeemed for free cash shop currency for PWE’s titles.

Completing quests will give you experience points to level up your Arc Quests level. Each level requires 600 XP and will reward you with 500 Arc Points that can be transitioned into ZEN or other in-game currencies available for games on the Arc platform. There is no level cap to your Arc profile, so you will continue to receive rewards as you complete your quests. These points will be redeemable via the Charge tab on the Arc website and client.

It’s an interesting concept, for sure. Cryptic Studios used to give away stuff for free on the Raptr client, so this may just be an extension of that campaign.

(Source: Arc)

[Column] Black Ops III And Genius Marketing

Call of Duty is one of those franchises that never sees coverage here at MMO Fallout, for obvious reasons. With that in mind, I need to take a moment out of our regularly scheduled programming to discuss the marketing genius behind the Black Ops III multiplayer starter pack, and to also explain why this concept needs to become a semi-regular promotion and also make its way to consoles. Activision is taking its marketing with a one-two punch that should, if all goes well, give a nice boost to sales on the PC.

First, what am I talking about. Nearly ten days ago, Activision introduced the Black Ops III Multiplayer Starter Pack for a paltry $15 on Steam. The pack is exactly what it sounds like, access to multiplayer with some restrictions. No campaign, no zombies, and you can’t prestige, play custom games, access mod support, no Dead Ops Arcade, or Nightmare mode. Tit for tat, this is as barebones as it gets: Ranked multiplayer. If you decide to upgrade to the full game, your $15 is taken off of the total price.

The package makes absolute sense on PC, where Activision has to contend with a tidal wave of established competition that is either free to play or damn near close. In order to make real headway on PC, Activision must rely on the Steam platform where established titles like Counter Strike: GO dominate the genre and the charts. It also makes sense if the company wishes to remain viable on the platform as a whole. At launch, Black Ops III averaged 24 thousand concurrent players on PC. Two months later, in January, that number had dropped to 14 thousand.

And help this game needs, since outside of Team Deathmatch and Domination, the game modes on PC are virtually abandoned at non-peak hours. Even on weekends, and after the release of the starter pack, it isn’t out of the ordinary to see multiple game modes stuck at 0%, with no one playing or willing to join to spark some traffic.

So by reducing the price of entry to $15, Activision brings in all kinds of players who would have otherwise not purchased the game, as you can see by the glut of players in the match above that only own the game because of the pack. Even if 90% of these players eventually quit without buying anything else, they still contributed $15 more per person than they would have had the pack not existed. In all likelihood, Activision views the pack as an easy point of entry: Those who would have waited for a heavy Steam sale to buy the game will likely stick around and even purchase the full game upgrade, while those who had just enough interest to toss in for the starter pack are salvaged customers.

The increase in population also gives incentive and boosts the likelihood that existing players will continue playing, and hopefully buy the season pass and customization pack if they haven’t already.

But, not to let this campaign die, Activision is ending the promotion with the second part of their one-two punch, a free weekend. Think of the free weekend as a boost to the stepping stone that is the multiplayer pack. Free weekends are like a sample station at the grocery store. They attract people who have no interest in buying the full product and, through the power of free stuff, hope to change their minds. So you play a few rounds of Black Ops, have a bit of fun, and oh hey the game is on sale for $40. Too much? Why not just keep playing the multiplayer for $15 and decide if you want to upgrade later? Cool.

So by that logic, the starter pack acts as something of a negotiating tool, with the full game upgrade splitting the cost and making the whole package look cheaper by comparison. Sure, you’re still paying the sale price of $40 total, but you put down $15 and start playing over the weekend, and then the sale is coming to an end but you can still upgrade to the full game for $24. Twenty four bucks for zombies, campaign, and everything else you’re missing? What a deal! At least, that’s the intended thought process of the promotion.

The promotion, and the availability of the starter pack, are gone come this week, so I have to say I am very interested to see where Activision goes with this type of package. There has been speculation for years now of Call of Duty cutting up its game modes into separate but cheaper packages, and there is no doubt that the numbers from this short lived campaign are going to be run through a gauntlet and have a heavy influence on the franchise’s future marketing.

Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

Black Desert Online Reduces Costume Prices 10%

MMORPG.com is reporting that costume prices in Black Desert Online will be reduced by 10% in response to community criticism over high prices. Currently in beta, Daum Games has taken heavy backlash on its forums over the perception that its prices for cash shop items were too high, with costumes going for as much as $32. According to associate editor Suzie Ford, Daum has confirmed that prices will drop by 10%, with the publisher keeping an eye on community feedback in order to continue tweaking its pricing for the future.

The announcement has been met with mixed reception by the Black Desert Online community, with some praising the developer’s response as others decry prices as still being too high after the reduction. Whether or not the new prices will inspire customers to pony up for costumes and pets will have to be seen when the game goes live in the coming weeks.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Leland Yee Sentenced To Five Years For Corruption

Gun control advocate Leland Yee was sentenced today to five years in prison during court proceedings Wednesday in a case that District Judge Charles Breyer referred to the defendant as “hypocritical.” Yee was elected to the position of Senator in California back in 2006 after his run as assemblyman of the state’s 12th district. Prosecutors charged Yee in 2014 after an undercover FBI sting revealed the Senator had not only promised votes and influential positions in return for campaign contributions, but also offered to introduce a client to an arms dealer who could illegally smuggle weapons into the country supplied by a Muslim separatist group in the Philippines, including shoulder-fired missiles.

In the months following his arrest, the California Senate adopted resolutions banning members from accepting contributions from fundraising during critical months, appointed an ethics ombudsman, and instituted new protocols protecting whistle-blowers.

During his time as an assemblyman for California’s 12th district, Yee sponsored the 2005 law AB 1179, banning the sale of violent games to minors and imposing strict fines on retailers for each violation. The law was challenged in district court and shut down by Judge Whyte, ruling that the law violated first amendment protections of free speech. The ruling was challenged in California’s 9th District Court of Appeals, who ruled against the law due to its obscure definition of “violent.” California challenged the 9th District’s ruling, taking the case up to the Supreme Court where in 2011, Supreme Court Justices ruled 7-2 against the state.

(Source: LA Times)

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