100°

EA Access wants to be Netflix for video games, but it doesn't go far enough

A video game subscription service in the vein of Netflix Instant Watch will make a company very, very wealthy. But it probably won't be Electronic Arts.

Mikey322303986d ago

No EA Access will never be like a netflix for video games. They are a single publisher.

Playstation Now Can be a netflix for video games IF they get this pricing right. I'm not sure what they are doing at the moment, i understand it is a beta and they are testing pricing.. but for every day you "test" pricing at such a high cost, they are losing money on the cost to keep those servers and infrastructure up and running. How many people are really streaming any games what so ever at pricing like that? I bet its an astounding low amount of people, to where they are losing more money than they are recouping, all for what? just to "test" pricing.

Sony did not test playstation plus pricing. They put out a completely reasonable subscription and it started selling itself immediately. I'm actually worried for this playstation now subscription model though. With pricing like how it is, it make it seem like the subscription would be a monthly fee of ($15-30) which translates to a yearly fee of ($180-$360)..That will certainly cause PSNow to fail.

We have to think what there subscription would mean.. would it give you 'free' access to to every game in the catalog to stream? if so... it becomes something even better than playstation plus.. which already costs $50 per year. I'm interested to see what they do with this subscription. I have a feeling it will be extremely expensive and sink their ship though.

Dwalls11713986d ago

It actually is Netflix of games . . . without the games. .
They don't have enough yet but they will get more

Deadpoolio3986d ago

Oh Jesus they are not putting new games into "the vault" they already made that clear with titanfall, the service is clearly only worth something if all you want to play are year plus old sports games, hell it's all the X1 is going to get.....

The point more people are trying to make is NO EA access is NOT the neflix of games nor could it really be based on the fact that EA is a publisher, they publish a very narrow spectrum of games. To be a netflix you would actually have to be an independant 3rd party or one of the console manufactures who could make deals with other parties to allow a wide spectrum of titles...

BTW the discount that everyone keeps jizzing over of future DIGITAL title purchases, simple maths tells us it's around $5.00 so clearly Xbots are desperate to try to make something sound amazing, if you have a problem paying $55 for a game at gamestop a non trade able $55 digital game should be just as horrible

Darkstares3986d ago

Netflix has the content to make the value much better but Neflix falls short in having new content which is where the 5 days early access on EA games differs. PS Now is also being compared to Netflix because it will offer older catalog titles but they price it based on each title. That's why it falls short until Sony offers a bundled model like Netflix.

EA Access also offers 10% discounts on digital content, Netflix doesn't do this.

nicksetzer13986d ago (Edited 3986d ago )

Down the road this service will be absolutely amazing. Games like titanfall, mirrors edge, star wars, and more will continue to grow the backlog. As of now EA access is an averagely enticing deal. As the library grow though? It will be a no brainer.

Plus early access to games and 10% of iss just a bonus.

ShadowKingx3986d ago

agree and not to mention alot of people including myself is waiting for the subscription to hit.

ShowGun9013986d ago

i hope it doesn't become like netflix, 1 quality item for every 25 garbage items.

"Over 10,000 streaming titles!"

"how many will i like?"

"between 4-7, depending on your affection for foreign films, and tolerance for our growing selection of gay/lesbian movies..."

how is that even a category? are there straight movies? (definetly not 300...)

Allsystemgamer3986d ago

Someone needs to use the filters...

Spotie3986d ago

There are movies that cater to a straight audience more than not. Just like chick flicks are for girls and action movies are for guys (generalizing, of course).

A genre isn't LIMITED to a specific audience, but it does specifically target that audience. Thus often means it'll have nothing for other audiences. Movies for the lgbt community aren't likely to appeal to most straight individuals, or they just don't appeal to them as much.

As a straight guy myself I have to ask: how does this negatively affect you?

On topic: EA's program can never be like Netflix, because it will only ever have EA titles available. PS Now attempts to offer content in a similar method, but with different pricing plans, currently.

ShowGun9013985d ago

@spotie

it negatively affects me, not because of niche content, but because MOST of the content on netflixs' streaming service is completly WORTHLESS... im not bashing any paticular genre, im saying MOST of netflix is low-quality filler that is just there to boost their numbers. MOST of the content is GARBAGE!

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3985d ago
Insomnia_843986d ago

Netflix with such a limited library? Limited to their games only, not even close to Netflix. Playstation Now is closer to Netflix than EA Access and a better value as you choose what games you get. Most of the EA games you will probably get on release, Fifa, BF, NFS, Madden, or will ppl wait several months for EA to put these games in The Vault and not buy them on release?

MysticStrummer3986d ago

Netflix has a pretty limited library also, but not only that, it's mostly stuff I don't want to watch. Many movies/shows on Netflix have less than 3 star ratings. EA Access better have loftier ambitions than that.

nicksetzer13986d ago (Edited 3986d ago )

Hmmm, netflix 7.99/month for access to ALL the content it has .... PSNow 5.99-7.99/week for ONLY 1 game.

Yup, sounds exactly the same.

Whereas EA access is 30$/year (aka 2.50$/month) for an entire backlog which will continue to grow. (Including games like mirrors edge, star wars battlefront, titanfall, PVZ, etc)

PeaSFor3986d ago (Edited 3986d ago )

ps now has more than one publisher, and you can rent a game 30 days for 15$ or 90days for 30$

Ea Access ONLY have ea games..and only few of them(lol at your "entire backlog"), wich is dealbreaker from the start.

im sorry but i will keep using PS+(and maybe ps now),

vanity293986d ago

I see people comparing EA Access to PS Now (and now Netflix?) a lot... I haven't looked into it though so I wanna know if it's a streaming service like the other two or not :0 otherwise no comparison

iamnsuperman3986d ago

It could never be with the limited library (which comes with a publisher running the service hence why either a pltofrm holder or a third party company needs to run the service). Also the method of delivery means it could never reach those heights (running games locally). PS Now is more akin to Netflix

Hellsvacancy3986d ago

I want to be an astronaut, doesn't mean i'm going to be one

masterfox3986d ago

yeah because EA games are top of the top right ? right ?

Show all comments (32)
290°

The Real Enemy of Gaming Isn’t DEI. It’s the CEO

From Horse Armor to Mass Layoffs: The Price of Greed in Gaming. Inside the decades-long war on game workers and the players who defend them.

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jambola21d ago

maybe a real enemy is people who use terms like "the real enemy"
there can be more than 1 bad thing, t's not like a kids show with 1 big bad

senorfartcushion19d ago

This is very much a “dummy who volunteers themselves to the middle” comment.

The real enemy is a common phrase, people use it all the time.

Calm down.

jambola19d ago

i'm very calm
you seem very upset however

Notellin19d ago

You don't seem calm at all. Don't take this so seriously, you seem desperate responding to others defending your opinion that lacks any value or critical thought.

jambola19d ago

stop projecting
i'm not desperately dong anything, i'm tapping at keys on my keyboard bud

PapaBop19d ago

It's not like kids show with one bad guy? I present to you.. Bobby Kotick

ABizzel119d ago (Edited 19d ago )

DEI was never the problem and it was an ignorant take to begin with.

DEI is why games like Kena Bridge of Spirits, South of Midnight, and Ghost of Tsushima exist.

DEI is why we have a huge resurgence in Japanese, Chineses, and Korean developers producing games like Stellar Blade, Black Myth, and why Nintendo & Sony exist.

DEI is why more and more games have HUGE accessibility options with both Sony and MS fully behind this.

DEI was never a bad thing, the entire purpose of DEI is representation of all people, genders, disabilities, etc…

The problem was people used DEI as a default derogatory term to describe what they believed was forced representation, which allowed colorist, racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic fools to run away with the negative DEI narrative.

jambola18d ago

you don't get to decide other people's motivations
sorry to break it to you

ABizzel117d ago (Edited 17d ago )

To each their own, however, nothing you said invalidates why some people take offense to DEI incorrectly.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 17d ago
Sciurus_vulgaris21d ago

Executives seem to often have an obsession with perpetual revenue growth. There is always a finite amount of consumers for a product regardless of growth. Additionally, over investment is another serious issue in gaming.

Killer2020UK19d ago

The fact that they also rarely have any real expertise in game development compounds things. They'll look at what's been successful elsewhere, lack the knowledge to properly understand why they have been successful and then force a team to 'reproduce' their badly interpreted idea of that success.

We see it so often with sequels to games that were successful too. The team are left well alone, they have a break through hit and all of sudden the money men descend on the IP and completely railroad the dev team's ideas. Usually winds up being 'make the same game but MORE'

LoveSpuds19d ago

This is true throughout all of the corporate and public sector organisations to be honest. CEO's generally move amongst the corporate world without any need to have experience of a particular industry, they simply need to rely on their senior leadership credentials. A CEO of a retail giant will just as easily transition to a CEO role in the energy sector for example.

Not defending CEOs here to be clear, I think it's a huge part of the reason the western world is so fucked up. CEOs don't need to care about the sector they work in, in fact it's better if they don't care if they want to screw everyone to make profits.

GhostScholar19d ago

Companies don’t hire executives to break even. If the goal is breaking even then why start the company in the first place.

Soy19d ago

That's understood; it's getting record profits and expecting to always beat those record profits, and seeing anything less as a total failure. Then they lay people off and raise prices to reach those record profit levels again, just to sate shareholders. It's setting expectations way too high just to spike share prices, then inevitably falling short. It's feeling entitled to being more successful than everyone else. It's the CEOs doing all this to boost their own bonuses.

ABizzel119d ago

Growth benefits the company’s profits and therefore the company’s stock if publicly traded, which pleases the shareholders making them more and more rich, which is why Growth is always at the forefront of the vast majority of any publicly traded company.

More growth = More Money and the people at the top want all the money they can get. I can’t really blame them anyone would love to see their profits go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, to multi-millions it’s almost like a gambling addiction.

But it also goes to show someone how morals can go out the window for a lot of these people, and how amazing some CEOs are when they catch this early and provide a balance solution that takes complete care of their employees across the board while keeping the business sustainable IE: Insomniac Games ALWAYS on the best places to work list. The rest of the industry could learn.

jambola21d ago

honestly, the "real" enemy of gaming, is ourselves
if nobody bought horse armor, shitty dlc would have died almost overnight
if we stood firm and nobody bought games from companies that were bad with layoffs, it would be solved
we're the idiots supporting awful business practices, we are the ones enouraging it

TiredGamer19d ago

I think the reality that we don't want to convince ourselves of is that without the rise of "horse armor" and DLC, game budgets would have essentially stagnated (smaller teams/smaller games), or game prices would have risen much more dramatically than they have. There was an incessant drive for bigger worlds, infinite detail, and hundreds of hours of "gameplay" over the last two decades, that while perhaps a natural evolution of things, needed a suitable funding stream to accomplish.

HyperMoused19d ago

What...CEOs make tens of millions and that doesnt include SLT etc etc...we now have multiple editions of games, in game currency, MT's, battle passes.....and what do we get..worse game than what was coming out 20 years ago....dont drink the cool aid, its this nickel and dime crap that is absolutely leading us to gaming destruction.

senorfartcushion19d ago

This is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. Blaming the masses is blaming the only people who are constantly “told” to buy.

Consumers are the only ones not to blame here. People make their own choices all the time. Disney movies are bombing and DEInis being blamed. Has that been enough to put Disney out of business? No and it never will.

Christopher19d ago

Disagree. Businesses are able to do what they do because people are bad consumers and don't think critically about purchases. Disney got away with doing shit stuff for years and it's just the last year where people got tired of it. It's not like it didn't work for 5 years or so for Disney to do the things they've done. They'll just move onto another way to get people to see movies and it will be just as bad but more profitable until people wake up and realize it.

TiredGamer19d ago

Consumerism drives business behavior. It's not so much "blaming" as it is observing behavior. The point I'm making is that the direction that games have gone are driven by the spending. Consumers are spending on DLC and they are driving the expectation of more glitz and padded out (lengthier) games. If they continue to pay, they will continue to drive that direction until a threshold is reached that forces a change in behavior.

senorfartcushion19d ago

Corporate advertising is the most powerful force on the planet.

This is N4G for god sake, every day there are arguments between people who are Team Xbox and Team PlayStation because they’ve been convinced that having an identity built on paying money to Sony and Microsoft matters more than having one as individual gamers who can play whatever they want.

And THEN we get to the corporate advertising part: to play whatever you want is to sink MORE into the advertising pits, making it so that you can more than one specific product.

jambola19d ago

ah you're right
they were told to buy it, it's clearly impossible to avoid that
if enough people stopped supporting, it would stop
disney not stopping would only be because enough people didn't stop

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19d ago
victorMaje19d ago

Agreed. I’ve been saying for years, announce you won’t be buying the upcoming game because of the practices of the previous game, then you only have to stick to your guns once, see how quickly things change for the better.

We have to unite in what we shouldn’t purchase.

jambola19d ago

just imagine a world, fifa came out worse, nobody buys the next one until they see proof it's better and stick to it
or games being forced online for single player and nobody buys it
things would change so fast

HyperMoused19d ago

Just like scooby doo, you have shown us the real monsters are us

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 19d ago
Inverno20d ago

Greed and greedy people have and always will be the main issue for everything wrong in the world. Everything is a product to be exploited for monetary gain. Even when there are things that could help progress us along for the sake of making our lives easier that thing must be exploited for monetary gains. Anything that tells you otherwise is propaganda to make you complicit.

coolfool20d ago

I've never thought "DEI" (although the way most people use it doesn't match it's real definition) is the problem with games. Good games have continued to be good when they have a diverse cast, and likewise, bad games have continued to be bad. There isn't a credible example I've seen where a diverse cast has been the direct cause of a game being bad.

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70°

Why We Partnered With St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Matt Miller: "Every subscription to Game Informer now raises funds for St. Jude. We want you to know what that means."

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thorstein24d ago

I subscribed to this not knowing about how some of the proceeds go to St. Judes.

Really cool that some of the money goes there.

Even if people don't subscribe to the mag, it might bring people to the charity.

jznrpg23d ago

One of the main charities my wife and I donate to. They help a lot of children and being a parent of 5 children I can’t imagine what those parents go through. I’ll probably get a sub to GI because of St Jude and of course because I love video games.

80°

Dungeons and Dragons is About to Break a 6-Year Trend

Though Unearthed Arcana's content primarily consists of subclasses and spells, WOTC's latest UA drop is set to shake up Dungeons and Dragons' future.

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