Why Gamers Don’t Believe That EA’s Paid Demos Were A Mistake

One Angry Gamer "There’s been a lot of debate over whether or not EA’s premium demos were part of a calculated test-run for a more nefarious future for vertical slices released to the public, or if it was just a gosh-darn honest mistake. Well, there’s some pretty good reasons why a large majority of core gamers saw the news and reacted the way they did."

[weekev15]

Because its EA so y'know they're greedy, moneygrabbing shills who don't give 2 craps about screwing over gamers to make an extra few quid?

Maybe folks should start voting with their wallets?

Watch this space "pay $4.99 to beta test Battlefield Hardline"

[NextLevel]

It wasn't an error. It happened on multiple stores and the price was converted for each region.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

They don't call it the Xbone for nothing.

http://static.fjcdn.com/pic...

[Pogmathoin]

The next level of pathetic.

[Godmars290]

Yeah. For a "mistake" looks like some perpetration and editing took place.

[MasterCornholio]

My opinion.

EA was going to do this on all platforms however for some reason it showed up on the Xbox first.

I don't believe they would have done this on one system and not the others.

[pompombrum]

Yeah I find it hard to believe that it's an error. I mean I'd understand if it effected multiple games but only EA games? Anyone else maybe but EA would sell their game in pieces if they thought they could get away with it just so they could milk us dry.

[mikeslemonade]

My question is why would you waste your time to play EA demos to begin with. I personally don't play many demos because the majority of them aren't worth my time. Especially EA demos.. the EA sports ones are so short.

I get a much better feel of the game by watch gameplay videos which are basically instant to my viewing. Instead of downloading, installing, loading, and deleting.

[xboxftw]

Wow look at the comments of the ignorant. I had downloaded the UFC demo about a week back and played it and was never asked to pay anything. Most of the comments are from people who dont' have xb1 and are hater of this console.

[AceBlazer13]

@^ it didn't happen a week back idiot, of course you didn't have to pay.

[alexkoepp]

At $5 it was clearly priced at that point. If it had been $59.99 I could see it being an honest mistake.

[Prime157]

It's easy.. stop buying their games. I haven't bought an EA game since dead space 1. Online passes were the last straw for me and I've been boycotting since.

[Doge]

But I paid $0 to play the Battlefield Hardline beta.

[weekev15]

Yep and when/if it reopens itll cost $4.99, either that or there will be a demo one month before release.

[r1sh12]

the funny thing here is Demo = demonstration.
You dont go to test drive a car and pay, so why should it be different for games?

Its a good thing I dont by any EA games.

[Tetsujin]

I'd blame MS before EA on this, not to troll or start a flame war but it is strange how PC and PSN can have free demos on the exact same games yet on Live there's pricing.

It could be a legit mistake, or it could be something like "buy the demo and receive a free X/Y item when game releases;" probably something in the ToS that no one reads. If that's the case they should provide a reason why there's a charge before fans show up with hatred.

[Godmars290]

Because its EA. And even though it didn't go through, the precedent was established by Capcom with the MML3 demo.

Why wouldn't some company such as EA try to do it again?

[admiralvic]

"the precedent was established by Capcom with the MML3 demo. "

Maybe the idea was, but the precedent wasn't. For something to establish the precedent, it would have to have an outcome. Since MML3's demo never released, we don't know what would happen (I assume very few would have bought) and thus would not cause a precedent.

[randomass171]

Gotta agree. The MML3 demo and its cancellation is a story from years and years ago. I'd be more convinced that that was the inspiration if EA had done it more closely to that time frame.

[Kivespussi]

As much as I hate EA I just can't see this as nothing more but a mistake. People just jump on the hate train just because it's EA

[oODEADPOOLOo]

http://static.fjcdn.com/gif...

[InMyOpinion]

It was a test to see our reaction. They are trying to get us used to the idea of paying for demos.

[MasterCornholio]

Demos should be free dang it!!!!!!

[Green_Ranger]

Naw, Kojima beat Ea to the punch with Ground Zero

[zackacloud]

EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Activision these companies nobody can trust them, they lies as much as goverments.

[XiYakushijuAkeginuXi]

You are missing one other :p

[Toxic-zombie]

McDonald's s/

[Slick81]

Wether it was intentional or not no one could be stupid enough to pay for a demo

[MasterCornholio]

I hope no one is stupid enough to pay for a demo otherwise EA and other firms will have incentives to charge for demos.

[ramiuk1]

people pay £4 to have a different emblem on there gun in cod,trust it,people would pay for a demo.

look at all the shit thats sold as DLC,infact look at the bullshit MS used to sell for avatars.

people will always buy it,specially the kiddies with mum and dads credit card linked to there consoles

[Trunkz]

They are Charging Canadians $10 more for BF Hardline....

The US > CDN money difference is about $4, so explain why you are charging $10 more? Greedy company is greedy...

[Rogert]

Sony did that with infamous second son and everything else that is about to come out on the PSN store as well.

[Soldierone]

Was probably a hint of something to come. I remember "season passes" started showing up before those eventually got released. Same with a lot of other things.

Coming from a company that LOVES micro-transactions and wants fees-to-play to become standard, it is nothing too out of the ordinary....

Guess paying 110 dollars for rehashed yearly releases isn't enough for them.

[endzeitkind]

this headline

[xX1NORM1Xx]

Cause it's EA they can't expect to do shit like this all the time all the cash grabs and shitty over prices dlc and broken games the thing is when the news broke gamers were like well I wouldn't put it past them they can't treat us like shit and then expect us the believe they are amazing we know they aren't mistake or not everyone will see this as a plan gone wrong

[Max-Zorin]

They wasn't voted worst company in America for nothing.

[iSuperSaiyanGod]

It doesn't really even matter IMO , I never download demos anyways lol

[artsaber]

Don't support this. Paying for demos? what's next, paying to beta test games? Oh, we already do that in many cases when we get those huge early life patches after buying games nowadays. The shaving of content to be sold as DLC was born from this type of idea. I swear s omen of these companies have zero appreciation for tier customers, time to respond with a big fat NO from your wallets.

[diesoft]

I'll bet they were thinking that you pay a small fee for the demo, "get hooked" (lol), then give a $5 discount for digital version if you bought it through the in-demo store.

That sounds very much like something EA would have the balls to try, don't you think?

[Artemidorus]

Never trust EA they want everyones money.

[ExposingLames]

cuz its EA. Nuff said. Any further information from me will be $4.49 per line or $59.99 for 2014 pass. Colored and/or bold text can be purchased for $1.49 or the complete color and text pack for $6.00 If you vist my own blog then you can get a 5% discount and a free bobblehead for signing up.

[CaptainObvious878]

I'd like to give a good high 5 with a chair to the face of all the greedy EA executives that don't give a dam about games and prioritise their shareholders instead of the gamers.

[daBUSHwhaka]

They should be paying us to demo there games the bunch of morons.I really do hope this company falls some time very soon.They think there GODS of the industry.Bite my shite

[Master-H]

EA was probably like : Kojima did it, why shouldn't we ?

[S2Killinit]

Well i mean how could it possibly be a mistake. I might be wrong but it seems like it couldnt have happened without some preponderance. The price 4.99 was not random. It also occured on multiple titles, the titles were from one publisher only.

To be clear this had to have happened with MS's blessing since its their service. MS is the one who has to push the button and give the green light.

This, coming from a company that pitched the kinect to industrialists as a method to charge people for movie rentals, per head sitting in front of kinect, does not surprise me.

[CawMasterX]

It's a scary predicament but gamers would ultimately have the final say. For example, look at what happened to the X1. Not trying to start a fight but we all know that we can scare someone straight regardless of who they are when it gets down to it.

[pompous]

Yeah gamers have the final say, but we all know this would become standard practice because people would pay for this shit no problem rendering our final say moot. The core gamers got the xbox changed because it is us who initially buy consoles on release and by now there are more than just the core gamers who own the new consoles for us to have a final say in this as like I said those who aren't the core gamer would pay this.

[Igniter]

Maybe the mistake was not the price but the classification. Maybe the listing was for renting the game. Digital game rentals seem likly this gen. It will be interesting to see the pricing structure for rentals. One thing that may work is if you could rent a game then if you decide to keep it the rental charge is credited for the purchase.

[MuhammadJA]

EA did this to make a quick cash from not too bright people. Once the "mistake" gets out of control, they can pull out their escape card "sorry, it was an error". Typical EA.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

EA & M$, paid demo;s, what a joke!

BF:Hard Line, with the new game mode "Cash Grab"

[pompous]

It may have been a mistake, but this is EA we're talking about so that is why us gamers have a hard time believing it was a mistake. The really sad thing is there are gamers that would have paid the 4.99 for the demos. So if this practice ever gets an actual trial run, we all know it'll become standard due to the brain dead gamers that would've paid or even the apologists that were defending this would be all over it too.

[WMANUW]

Why complain all just talking about EA, CORRECTLY, but no one complains Craps Ubisoft and other SH?

[Enigma_2099]

... if it was a mistake, why did they wait until everyone complained before doing anything about it?

[SpiralTear]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a mistake, and if it was, I wouldn't expect the idea to disappear from EA's psyche down the line.

[diesoft]

Boo! Don't give them any ideas!

[SpiralTear]

If this wasn't a mistake, they already had the idea. If they didn't, after all this coverage, they do now. We just can't give into garbage like paid demos. If/when they push that, we just gotta say "no."

[diesoft]

I agree. I just hope it doesn't last as long as the horrendous "project 10 dollar" idea if they decide to push something again. F*** YOU, EA, for that idea. I'm glad you quit but other publisher likely won't any time soon.