Sports Games Toy With Pay To Play

Thanks to CNN Money for their article discussing videogame plans for the forthcoming football season, particularly focusing on the fact that "publishers are interested in discovering exactly how dedicated electronic football fans are to the online element." EA president John Riccitiello explains: "The online connected console is a brand new concept. We do not want to set a long term precedent that it's a free benefit, but we don't think we can get paid for the simple act of matching two consumers to play against one another. So what we've been doing is looking at alternatives." According to the article, EA will be trying pay-to-play tournaments (but only in NBA Live for now, not Madden), and the opportunity to purchase downloadable content, as EA learns "what the consumer is willing to pay for."

Comments

How about two-tiered playing?

[whitefox]

If I was in charge, I would do it this way: free head-to-head playing and an entry fee to compete in tournaments.

For head-to-head play, no stats are kept. You just play against your friends or whomever. This allows new players to learn how to play against real opponents. If expert players are willing to help novices learn, all the better. After all, I won't willingly pay to get my ass handed to me time after time.

But for tournament play (monthly charge), stats are kept on each player along with their rankings, games are scheduled between players with a choice of equal calibar or unbalanced matchups, and the occasional super-tournament can be set up.

I think something like this would be fair to everybody (novice players, expert players & the game companies alike).