EA Sports and Planned Obsolescence - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 110

but in separating the selling of the pass from the game disc, EA is able to
gain revenue from the sale of the service, whereas they would be cut out of
any revenue from the resale of the disc. Although EA has not disclosed rev-
enue fi gures associated with the development of Online Pass, it has spread
throughout their games and in one interview an executive noted “what I
can say is that we've been very happy with Online Pass. Online Pass for us
was all about an acknowledgement of the value of the service we want to
provide online.” 42 As the balance of value contained in the play experience
is shifted from ol ine play to online play, the Online Pass program allows
EA Sports to govern who is able to play by separating elements of the game
and disc from the service of online access and online play.
Beyond controlling who can engage in online play, EA Sports has the
option to choose when players are no longer able to play online. As part of
pitching online play as a service, EA routinely shuts down the servers for
their 'older' games, those with fewer than 1% of the online player base, to
ensure that “our hard-working engineering and IT staf focus on keeping a
positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popu-
lar games.” 43 Although the policy af ects all EA games, not just sports titles,
it is particularly interesting for sports games, as they are supplanted annu-
ally by new versions of the same game. EA certainly sells the point that
relatively few people are playing these games online, but as the focus shifts
from providing a complete game on the disc to providing an experience that
depends on both disc and access to online content, the ability for EA to shut
down online access whenever they choose gives the company a tremendous
amount of power in shaping the terms on which their games are played.
As online interaction hosted or supported by game companies enters the
realm of play, game companies accrete a greater ability to set certain terms
on which play occurs, as “with titles as recent as 14 months old [being shut
down by EA], it does ask some serious questions about what you're actu-
ally paying for.” 44 In many ways online access is a boon for players, as it
expands the ways in which their games can be played and enables them to
compete with live people and connect with friends living in far-fl ung places.
However, the control asserted by game companies cuts into some of those
advantages, a dynamic that may be best seen in the incremental charges
now assessed for additional content or options.
I was slow upgrading to the HD generation of consoles, as I was playing
PC games and did not see the need to get a PS3 or Xbox 360 until well after
their launch. One of the genres of games I had really missed were sports
games, so I quickly procured the latest version of Madden . As I began the
franchise mode I was struck by how many elements of the game had been
displaced and were replaced with new options that cost money above and
beyond what I had paid for the game. This upselling is integrated through-
out EA Sports titles, where one reviewer fi nds it objectionable that in FIFA
Soccer “you can buy short-term upgrades for your virtual pro in the new
FIFA store— 160 MS [Microsoft Points, for the Xbox 360; about two USD]