I don't get this.
- Get discount on new games
- Get to play old games that don't move units anymore
- Pay monthly or per year
How is this a good deal? It's basicly EA giving you the chance to pay money to play games you don't want to buy because noone plays them. The discount on new games is most likely a chance to hook customers. Perhaps I'm a bit sceptic but this is not good for the consumer. If anything EA has proven that the consumer is their sworn enemy.
When you break it down, it's not a good deal if you're trying to game the system financially.
-If you buy the $30 membership, you need to buy at least 6 EA retail games within that year to come out ahead, or buy over $300 in EA digital content and DLC.
-Buying a $5 subscription for one month only requires you to buy one retail game or $50 worth of EA DLC, so that theoretically you could wait till December, buy a one month membership, and buy all the EA games and content you wanted to save money. But it's highly unlikely anyone would do that.
-So in regards of discounts, no, it isn't worth it for this membership unless you feel that the extra features make up for it. You get to dip into an "EA Vault" that has old titles that are either bringing in less revenue or are reaching the end of their shelf life (essentially all of last year's sports titles), games that depend less on making that initial $60 sale and more on keeping the player count high and offering premium DLC and subscriptions (Battlefield), and the occasional "goodwill" game that can be considered a small loss to EA (Peggle 2, though I think that got some DLC if I'm not mistaken?). You also get limited early play time for games up to a few days beforehand, which is neat.
-EA doesn't mind taking the hit for all this because their revenue for digital is higher than retail anyways, and allows for less used games on the market. Total win for EA.
EA doesn't really need to keep updating their "EA Vault" because they aren't going to be dependent on making sure they get that $5/month from players. The $5 is just a way to make the $30 even more appealing to new subscribers. As soon as you pay that money, you're essentially locked in to a new digital-only store with benefits that won't cost EA much money at all.
A really, really smart play by EA that could be worth it for players who love both sports and EA developed franchises. But there's not gonna be much here for someone like myself who has zero interest in sports.
if you end up buying 2 games and their DLC, you essentially save as much money as you spent... while getting access to the game vault, and saving potentially even more money on other purchases.
in the last year I bought titanfall, battlefield 4, their season passes, and peggle. so I would have saved more money than I spent on the subscription, and would have been able to play FIFA and Madden.
and they are just going to continue adding games to the game vault? sounds good to me
See, this is what I mean. If you bought Battlefield and Titanfall ($120) and their season passes (I dunno how much this is, so lets say $20 for each so another $40), and Peggle (I think it was $20?). That's $180, which means you saved $18, and did not cover the cost of your subscription. You'd have to make the call whether or not free access to last year's FIFA and Madden is worth the extra $12, or any future potential EA Vault games.
Like I said, easy to make that call if you love sports and videa'games, maybe not so much if you don't.
