HAI GUYS! EA lets you play GAMES on ORIGIN!!!!

[HaemishM]

I just got an email about this and had to share.

EA Origin Access Monthly Subscription

That's right. For $5 a month, you can play more than ONE DOZEN EA games without buying them. These games include the ever popular Sim City (yeah the shitty the one that got released buggy and broken as fuck), Battlefield Hardline (yeah, the shitty cops and robbers one that no one wanted), FIFA 15 (yes, LAST YEAR'S FIFA game not even the current one), all the Dead Space games and all the Dragon Age games and some others. No, it does not include the expansions. And you get discounts on other EA games and maybe free trials of new stuff before it's released.

What... a... bargain.

Or not. Who the fuck is this supposed to appeal to?

[Rendakor]

What a joke. I have no idea who the target audience is for this shit.

[jakonovski]

Go look elsewhere and people are stoked. Yesterday's piece of crap is today's bargain. The market has passed us by.

[Fabricated]

Origin still sucks really bad and now they've had years to try and renovate their storefront into something not bad.

[Rendakor]

I checked /v/ and most of the comments there are negative, too. Comments on Kotaku's article are also pretty negative. Where are people stoked for this?

[jakonovski]

I just looked at Neogaf, it's my litmus test for this stuff.

[Yegolev]

Is this the only needle to get Sims from?

[Rendakor]

The latest Sims isn't even a part of the subscription. I don't even mean the latest expansion; the sub includes Sims 3 but not Sims 4 (which dropped more than a year ago).

[schild]

My EA boycott still runs strong.

[Kail]

I don't know that this is a particularly bad implementation of it ($5 seems fine, if you don't mind Origin and don't already own the games on there) but the idea of subscribing for temporary games always annoys me. Something like Humble Monthly is fine, you're just setting up a recurring payment to get some games, and if you cancel there's no change other than you won't get any MORE games next month, but the idea of taking away my games really bugs me.  It's not exactly rational, but my brain keeps doing these cost / benefit tallies like "the benefit is temporary, and the cost is $5 per month for eternity, so you're paying infinity dollars for nothing permanent."

[Threash]

Five dollars for all the dragon age games is...not bad? If you can finish in a month i guess.

[eldaec]

I wonder what the intersection of "people who want to play Dragon Age", "people who have not played Dragon Age", and "people willing to install Origin" actually is though.

[Fabricated]

NeoGAF is also terrible

[Merusk]

How about /r/games?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/40noj0/origin_access_announced_for_pc/

Or /r/pcmasterrace...

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/40none/origin_access_announced_for_pc/

For various reasons the younger crowd prefers subscription over ownership for almost all media. Ownership is dead, long-live rentals, I guess.

[HaemishM]

I don't necessarily have a problem with "rentals" - hell, I pay the $10 a month for Spotify and haven't bought an album in quite a while. But this is terrible because the only good games in here you either need like a year's worth of subscription to buy the expansions for (Battlefield 4) and most of the rest is either old and busted (Sim City) or just busted (BF Hardline) or old enough you can get them for not more than $5-$10 anyway (Dragon Age 1 & 2, FIFA 15) if you wait for a sale. It's like all of EA's offerings - "we want to give you something good but you see you don't deserve it. But please do go ahead and pay for it anyway."

[ezrast]

No kidding. I've been feeling a Sims-y itch lately and would throw away $5 to rent the newest one for a month and get it out of my system - maybe even buy it if I like it. But for the 2009 version? No thanks.

[KallDrexx]

Gotta start somewheres.  If they expand the library I can see this being compelling.  I've been wanting to play the dragon age games for a while but never got around to buying them yet due to time constraints.  Unfortunately, by the time I'm back home I will now have my ps4 waiting so I won't be pc gaming for a bit.

[Azazel]

So it's just their XBox one scheme copypasta'd to PC. I really don't see the need for butthurt. The value's probably not as good as for XBone, because console prices and things like region price changes on PC. Still, I'd rather pay $5 when I eventually decide to play the Hardline campaign, because I'm sure as shit not planning to buy it. Is DA:I in there?

[Merusk]

It's like all of EA's offerings - "we want to give you something good but you see you don't deserve it. But please do go ahead and pay for it anyway."

It's not just EA that does this.

I look at it this way: they want to offer at a certain price point. They want to also do so without gutting sales of current games and therefore revenue. So we've got the Old Navy "disposable crap" offerings at rental and the Black House/ White Market offerings at new games.

In other words, the bean counters though this was a GREAT idea. Consumers are buying it up because, "OH LOOK IT'S ONLY $5" like that Old Navy T-shirt. Never mind the shit's broke, busted and useless after 3 months. It was cheap and consumers never learn their lesson.

I may also be a bit cynical about retail models, though.

[shiznitz]

Why pay $5 a month for Dragon Age? Isn't it $5 free and clear on Steam by now?

[Azazel]

Twenty bucks each for Origins and Awakening (or thirty for the double). Looks like DA2 and DA:I aren't on Steam at all anymore.

But apparently the entire DA back catalogue is "broke, busted and useless"  so carry on bitching about something you can completely ignore.

[schild]

One of the Dragon Ages was free this month with PS+. On... the PS3.

[HaemishM]

But apparently the entire DA back catalogue is "broke, busted and useless"  so carry on bitching about something you can completely ignore.

Only said they were old.    Also, I've never liked DA much - I've tried to play through the first one twice and have yet to be able to finish before I get bored and annoyed with the mechanics.

[Rendakor]

Same here; I never got the hype. I added some mods my second time and still couldn't finish it.

[Speedy Cerviche]

It's not a terrible deal if you're actually going to play some of those games. You also get 10% off other EA games so it would be almost free if you're regularly buying EA sports games, battlefield games, RPGs.

[Sky]

Maybe I'll sub to get Madden on the PC!

 

[Velorath]

So it's just their XBox one scheme copypasta'd to PC.

Yeah, this is pretty much the same thing that's been around for over a year already on the Xbox. Don't know if they're doing the same thing here, but on Xbox they also give subscribers limited early access to new games. Subscribers were able to play Star Wars Battlefront for example a week before release, but only for a total of 10 hours. Apparently they just announced they're doing something similar for Unravel next month letting subscribers on PC and Xbox play the first two levels (again for only 10 hours total) five days before the game releases.

[Azazel]

But apparently the entire DA back catalogue is "broke, busted and useless"  so carry on bitching about something you can completely ignore.

Only said they were old.    Also, I've never liked DA much - I've tried to play through the first one twice and have yet to be able to finish before I get bored and annoyed with the mechanics.

You're talking to the wrong guy if you think you're deflating a fanboi. I played the first one, got stuck in the fade, eventually got through it via a walkthrough, then lost interest before I got out of the tower because fuck the shitty limited inventory system they have in that game. I started the second one and fully intend to get back to it, and then play the third sometime after that.

Point is that they're not $5 games (so it seems), and the third one still seems to go for a decent enough price.

Still. EA Access (or Origin Access, or whatever) isn't an inherently bad thing, if you expect FIFA 16 on it you're the one with unrealistic expectations (I hear it's available to buy right now if you actually want it), it's 100% ignorable, and the nerdrage here seems more like bitching for the sake of hearing your own voice in an echo chamber because "fuck EA" is what the cool kids all say or some shit.

[HaemishM]

I think you're projecting. I just thought it was a really shitty subscription service targeted towards an audience I can't imagine exists in any great number. The fact that it doesn't give you access to the newer version of games is part of my LOLWTF? I might consider paying a $5 subscription to play FIFA 16 for a few months and also get some of the other games but not last year's version of the game. It's a bit like SOE All-Access thing, only instead of getting games people were playing like SWG, Planetside 2 or EQ 1/2, all you got was The Matrix and Planetside 1.

[Azazel]

I think you're projecting. I just thought it was a really shitty subscription service targeted towards an audience I can't imagine exists in any great number. The fact that it doesn't give you access to the newer version of games is part of my LOLWTF? I might consider paying a $5 subscription to play FIFA 16 for a few months and also get some of the other games but not last year's version of the game. It's a bit like SOE All-Access thing, only instead of getting games people were playing like SWG, Planetside 2 or EQ 1/2, all you got was The Matrix and Planetside 1.

Projecting? That's how I felt when you felt a need to talk down Dragon Age to me as though I was a big fan. I was simply pointing out how they're not exactly free or even $5 to buy.

Still, it's a bit ridiculous for you to expect them to put their newest-release flagship titles up so you can pay $10 to play for 2 months until you get bored of it. You're a grown-up, so I'm sure how you can see how charging $30/year for access to all of their disposable annual-cycle games would be shooting their sales figures in the foot in favour of far fewer dollars worth of rentals. Trying to conflate it with SoE's All-Access doesn't work either, since they were a bunch of MMOs and people generally don't have time to play more than 1 (or 2 at most) of those things.

It's a place for their older games to go when they're not so shiny anymore, and for last year's annual-cycle games to go. Every so often they throw you a DLC pack for free to keep you interested.

I'll explain the appeal of it for someone like me:

I'm kinda interested in playing through BF:Hardline. Mostly because of curiosity. I'd like to play the MP as well - probably only for an hour or so, but I'd like to fuck around with the car-chase mode. Am I interested in buying it? NOOOOOPE!
I don't mind FIFA games, but I'm not exactly a hardcore fan. I bought FIFA 15 when I got my PS4 in late 2014. It's still in the shrinkwrap. My last FIFA games was the World Cup game, and before that, I think it was 13 or 12? Might I want a fuck around and play FIFA for a week or two? Sure. Do I have a strong want or need to buy or play the latest? Nope.
Need for Speed. I'm less interested in this series, but I might play it for a week or so. Same deal with the UFC game.
I've already got BF4 and DA:I, so /shrug

Still - the cost to buy any of those games is at least AU$20 each, and more often higher (DA, BF:H). A year's access to EA Access on XBone is AU$40. if it has 2 games I'm interested in playing through in a year and am unlikely to play again, then I've gotten my money's worth. I should point out that I don't trade in games and avoid buying "preowned" unless there's no other option for a game. Fuck giving EB a game I paid $50 for for $10 store credit towards a fucking pre-order. I'd rather give my old games away. So I just box my old games, or I give them away to people who'd hopefully appreciate them.

[HaemishM]

My point was that I don't think even at $5 it's a very good value, especially for the multiplayer games like BF4. Of course, you're in Aussie land, where you get absolutely fucked in the ass on game prices for no good goddamn reason I can see, so it might end up being a better deal for you than those in the US. It's got nothing to do with you or I being a fan of Dragon Age. If you want to play DA1, generally, you can pay about 2 months worth of sub or less and get the full game from multiple outlets (Steam has it on sale now for $7.49).

Again, Aussie prices being insane in the membrane could totally skew your perception of the value of the package. The FIFA thing is just funny to me, because once the new version is out, there's usually zero reason to buy last year's version, especially if you follow soccer closely.

[Sophismata]

That's ok, because the subscription isn't available in Australia due to regional restrictions  .

And Dragon Age was shit IMO.

[Azazel]

My point was that I don't think even at $5 it's a very good value, especially for the multiplayer games like BF4. Of course, you're in Aussie land, where you get absolutely fucked in the ass on game prices for no good goddamn reason I can see, so it might end up being a better deal for you than those in the US. It's got nothing to do with you or I being a fan of Dragon Age. If you want to play DA1, generally, you can pay about 2 months worth of sub or less and get the full game from multiple outlets (Steam has it on sale now for $7.49).

Again, Aussie prices being insane in the membrane could totally skew your perception of the value of the package. The FIFA thing is just funny to me, because once the new version is out, there's usually zero reason to buy last year's version, especially if you follow soccer closely.

I don't think it is. I'm just looking at the whole package from a much more casual point of view - and from the "year's sub" perspective as well since it costs, what? 6 months worth of the monthly sub price - making it $2.50 a month. (And that $30 or $40 is nothing to me in the scheme of things.) Also, I did sub for a year on XBone, barely played anything on it (though that's on me - I barely played the XBone full stop in the last year).

You can still play the core maps of BF4 which I felt were the best ones before I lost interest in playing with any frequency. I saw that Steam has DA1 on sale atm, but it'd be more of a way to play through the lot of them. What's the annual sub? $30US? For most people, that'd be a playthrough of each DA game without a need to replay with a different character/class. Those people bought it on release. With FIFA though - again you're looking at it through your perspective of a close follower of the sport. I'm not, but I don't mind a muckaround game every so often. People who closely follow Soccer and the rest of the EA sports line are the people who buy those games on release. Their inclusion in this package is "value added" for casual followers and people who are much more budget-conscious, like students, families, kids, people out of work, etc - it's a shitload of cheap entertainment. Even cheaper than a traditional MMO/month.

Really, if you want to be outraged, have you seen Sony's games on demand service for PS4 - PlayStation Now? That's why EA access isn't on PS4 in one hit.

Soph - I'm sure it'll turn up at some stage, though I'm more likely to resub to the XBox one at some point in the future. Probably when they add some more stuff I'm interested in playing through.

[HaemishM]

Technically, I AM the more budget conscious because I'm cheap as shit and haven't bought a game at full price since X-Com got released, for any platform. And I think it's a shitty deal. I might think it was a better deal if 1) there were more games, 2) more recent games and 3) there were better games. Of course, I think that's probably an indictment of the quality of EA games as much as it is a criticism of the value of this package. Hell, I haven't wanted to pay $30 for the newest Dragon Age game and I still wouldn't pay the $5 a month just to try it out on this deal.

[ezrast]

I think the point where you're talking past each other is that it's not the price point that makes this deal unappealing, it's the product model. We're willing to rent new stuff, or purchase old stuff at a discount, but we're not willing to rent old stuff. They could be charging $1/month and it still wouldn't be worth the bother. I could rationalize this a half dozen ways if I wanted to, but even if we just chalk it up to human nature being goofy, I'll be goofy and keep my dollar.