Now we know why they delayed Dragon age at least.
Razgon
5431
Well, this is interesting. Neverwinter will be coming to Xbox One. That’s a pretty big thing I think - I kinda wish it would come to PS4 as well.
It says it’s a free to play MMO. That explains why I haven’t heard of it. What differentiates it from other MMOs? Have you played it Razgon? Does it play more like Never winter Nights or more like most MMOs?
Razgon
5433
Neverwinter is a very succesfull action MMORPG which is kinda designed to not unlike those candy crush games with bright colors, instant gratifications like constant level ups, lots of loot, lots of sounds and in general tons of things going on at all times.
That actually doesnt mean its a bad game, and the F2P part is mostly bag space and vanity items - at least for the first 40 levels which is all I’ve played.
The really big thing about the game, which will be interesting to see if they can carry across, is the Forge, where players make their own adventures. You can level just fine just doing those, or follow the quest lines as you please. While I’m no fan of F2P games, this is actually the finest of them that I’ve seen so far, and I find this to be quite the scoop.
Other interesting things are henchmen you use both in-game, and that you can send off on adventures as well through a website and collect loot, xp and gathering materials as well which is kinda interesting.
it has very little to do with Neverwinter Nights, other than the name, though, and I guess, the forge.
Sony issued a fairly sternly worded statement:
“We evaluated the EA Access subscription offering and decided that it does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect,” a Sony representative told us via email. “PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price. We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer.”
So I wouldn’t expect it any time soon. They are taking a position that publisher specific subscriptions in general are bad road to go down, and that EA Access in specific is a crappy value. I suppose they are worried about a proliferation of such subscriptions that could result in the kind of situation Studio-owned movie theaters created. Having gamers at a large scale tying up their game budgets in publisher specific subscriptions could be really bad for smaller publishers and independent game makers.
Having gamers at a large scale tying up their game budgets in publisher specific subscriptions could be really bad for smaller publishers and independent game makers.
And for PS Plus, which is obviously why Sony said no.
Teiman
5436
Yea, the instant-gratification schemes-inside schemes is that bad.
But the actual game is a competent action RPG, where theres some illusion of tactics, but mostly a complete disregard of strategy. This game is not DDO. Has that, I imagine could be a fun RPG to play with friends. Play best drunk, and after watching a LOTR marathon.
Jazar
5437
I see Sony’s point but they’ve now given people a reason to choose Xbox One over PS4.
Which is probably the first time that has happened in over a year! :D
-Todd
Not based on what we’ve heard of the service so far they haven’t.
There’s also the new Crackdown they’re working on! That might get me to put money down for an Xbone anyway.
I don’t know how much EA Access would move the needle for someone on the fence, but it’s a decent offer for someone that just wants to play FIFA, Madden, Battlefield 4, or any combination of the three. $30 for a year of access to those games is much cheaper than the $60 per game you’d be expected to pay for them. EA will undoubtedly put more titles into “The Vault” as the service grows, so I can see how it could be compelling for a fan of EA’s flagship franchises.
Now, once Ubisoft and Activision get into the same game, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I suspect most consumers will not go for more than one publisher-specific subscription at a time.
It’s $30 for a years access to the 1 year out of date versions of those games without any DLC. And the vault can grow, but if most of that is just adding another round of annual sports games being retired a month before the next one comes out it remains a dubious value proposition.
Man, none of the stuff offered is appealing to me in the least, so you’re preaching to the choir. However, I’m seeing a lot of positive buzz around this deal. Some people seem pretty jazzed about it. Granted, if we look at it a year from now and nothing new has been added, I’m sure the enthusiasm will be gone.
I suppose if EA can capture even 5% of the Xbox One market, then it was a good play for their strategy. Companies love recurring subscription income. It’s great for forecasting and growing customer spend.
It sounds like a great deal for our group. I know at least four of my friends used to own and play Battlefield 4 for the 360. They were reluctant to buy it again when they got XB1 this year, so went to Titanfall instead. But for $30, having access to Battlefield 4 again for them (and for the first time for me) is pretty appealing. Plus I haven’t played a Madden game since '06, and haven’t played a Fifa game since '11, so getting access to a more recent iteration of that game appeals to me a lot.
I’d be more curious to how this affects my two friends who always get the latest edition of Madden. Will they continue to do so, or will they switch to only playing Madden through EA Access now that they know that they’ll eventually get access to next year’s version down the line anyway?
5% of the Xbox One install base would bring in less than 10M a year. It probably cost more than that to build the infrastructure, create the contracts and support a service like this. That would be a financial disaster. Personally, I think it will fail hard and slowly disappear from sight.
We’ll see. I remember the dire predictions for Origin when it was first announced and it seems like that’s not going away anytime soon.
That’s presuming the Xbone install base never grows.
It seems like a decent deal at $30/year. Not so much at $5/month ($60/year). I like Madden, but I generally buy used because while I like playing it, I’m not paying $60 to get my fix. So it’s basically like buying last year’s Madden used at GameStop, but you get a bunch of other games that you could potentially want to play, too. Plus, the library will grow.
It seems like a canny move by EA. They’ve already tapped the early adopters with those games. Now they’re going after the used game market that GameStop owns.
Also for the customers. I’d rather pay Sony $60/year for a shot at everyone’s games than EA $30 and Epic $30 and Ubi $30 and Square $30 and …
The value in non-deterministic systems (where you can’t choose what you get access to, but someone else does) is that if you have a broad-enough cross section you’re likely to hit frequently. The EA service is potentially great if you like Battlefield or Sports games, and of almost no value if you don’t. That’s a lot harder model to amortize many subscribers over in order to give a fair piece of the pie to every game on the service.
