Revenue from EA's Online Pass

[AlNom]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37089/EA_Details_Strong_Digital_Growth_Sims_Social_Numbers.php

"The revenues we derive from that haven't been dramatic. I'd say they're in the $10-$15 million range since we initiated the program

A decent chunk of change none-the-less...

Can't say the online pass particularly affects me. *shrug*

 

[function]

Would this allow them to claw something back from pirates too?

 

[tabs]

CFO Eric Brown pointed out that it is all "found revenue" that comes from users who previously "consumed bandwidth for free."

I have a bit of a problem with that:

Person A buys EA Sports game 2011 and plays online and uses bandwidth. He gets bored of it and sells it to Person B who does the same. Person A is no longer using the bandwidth. Net result = 0.

The bandwidth has been paid for. There's not an extra copy of the game floating around with 2 people using the bandwidth for that one payment EA received.

 

[patsu]

There is an average duration where a user sticks with a game. Business-wise, the cost factors (e.g., server size) are estimated based on this duration, so the infrastructure won't explode in every MP game. The number of concurrent users is usually based on a percentage of the active user base. So they are not wrong to claim that it affects their business in a negative way, but "consuming bandwidth for free" is probably too negative.

That said, they are probably most wary of people who only buy used games and play forever on MP. ^_^
They couldn't get any $$$ from this group of people before. This group may increase in size if the economy continues to stagnate.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I have a bit of a problem with that:

Person A buys EA Sports game 2011 and plays online and uses bandwidth. He gets bored of it and sells it to Person B who does the same. Person A is no longer using the bandwidth. Net result = 0.

The bandwidth has been paid for. There's not an extra copy of the game floating around with 2 people using the bandwidth for that one payment EA received.

Except that bandwith fee's aren't a static one time number. It is constantly accruing. For an unpopular game it won't be much. For a popular game which may be played for years (COD or Halo as examples) the publisher is potentially paying out monthly. Same goes for any operating costs associated with a data center (property taxes, electricity, maintenance man hours, machine maintenance, redudancy for data storage along with periodic replacements/updates, etc.).

People are far too naive if they think it's a one time cost easily paid for by the original purchase price. Especially when resale of a game (used market) could cause a title to have an extended online lifetime beyond the average which the company may have been planning on combined with potentially greater increases in the cost of utilities, etc.

Guild Wars (over half a decade old now), one of the more successful free to play online services doesn't pay for it's bandwidth and data center from just the original sale of the game/expansions. They aggresively market "extra" DLC type of content in order to keep the service free.

If the sale of DLC for the game were to suddenly dry up, I'd expect the service to move to a pay system or be shut down entirely.

Regards,
SB

 

[patsu]

Yes, plus some of these games are dedicated servers instead of P2P.

 

[tabs]

Good points, I stand (sit) corrected.