Just ran across this. Agree'd.
The sad thing is, EA doesn't care about customer loyalty at this point.
They have a chunk of popular IPs, they'll just continue they're money-hungry ways until people literally STOP buying their games, which going back to the popular IPs, probably wont happen.
EA brought back the Online pass. Yeah THQ is the one who brought it back from the retro era, but EA saw the idea and ran with it. You'll be hard-pressed to find an EA game from the last couple years that doesn't include an Online Pass, also sold online for $10. Now, the online pass isn't enough, the consumers have wisened up, and they know buying a used EA game means another $10, not counting whatever content they cut out and are calling "DLC". So, the next logical step in combating piracy and used sales: Always online DRM. It's barbaric, it's been proven to be faulty, to make gamers lash out against the developers, and to drive game scores down... but they don't care.
The thing that really drives me nuts about it is... they dont need this money. This is EA we're talking about, the company that pretty much monopolized DLC [on-disk, day 1, and all that terribad stuff], that charges consumers $10 to play a used game online, and that sells their own games through Origin for /full retail/, even though it costs them nothing but server costs. EA, the company that decided they would try to outsell Call of Duty by being Call of Duty, failed, and didn't have any noticable financial backlash as a result. EA, the company that blames the consumer for piracy, used sale rates, and other bullcrap cutting into their precious profits, while they sit on huge piles of cash, asking us for more. EA, the company that buys popular IPs, studios, and developers, just to make them churn out another grey, ultra-realistic shooter [Dead space, you deserved better]. EA, the same company that SUPPORTED SOPA, because they currently don't have enough endless power, they wanted sovereign power over the internet.
EA pretends that it has no money, and makes the consumer suffer because of it. Apparently "Challenge Everything" also includes how much your customers are willing to fork out.
Meanwhile, Valve has popularized Steam, which is essentially DRM, but is so friendly to the point where... I prefer it over pirated games. I know a game I buy from Steam I will be able to download, play, and enjoy, with or without internet. With internet I get all kinda goodies they give me FOR FREE [L4D1 campaigns for L4D2? how much does that cost... nothing?]. Valve sees pirates not as thieves, but as potential customers, and they reach out to these people by offering a genuinely better service and a really good price. Valve is becoming a very lucrative company, and it shows, not only in their games, but in Steam itself. Steam is constantly updating, and with the "Big Picture" service, they're looking into drawing the console market too. Valve has also bred fierce consumer loyalty, not by holding onto popular IPs, but by treating their customers like... well... paying customers.
Meanwhile, EA's scratching it's head going "I wish I could get some of that cash....". And on that day, Origin was born, and showed the world just how disconnected EA is.
EDIT- Sorry about the EA rant, it just really pisses me off then EA takes a popular franchise and dooms it from the start
I am so confused by this whole thing explain it to me the whole need to be online all the time deal.
Long story short, you have to be online to play SimCity. If you don't have net, or the EA servers go down, you can't play the game you payed $60 for.
