EA Wants Your Money For Cheats, Gold And Tutorials

   EA, honey, this has got to stop right here and now! I can understand the whole Battlefield 2142 in-game ads fiasco - after all, advertising in games is here to stay, and there's nothing we can do about it. But charging money for something like tutorial videos? That's just ridiculous. I remember a time when games used to have free tutorials as one of their most basic features, and when unlocking cheat codes was part of the fun... Not so anymore, it seems.

   This may be old news, but it's pretty relevant for the scams things that followed throughout the month. In early October, Joystiq reported about a set of "video strategy guides" that Electronic Arts released over Xbox Live for NCAA 07 Football and Madden NFL 07. Each five-minute tutorial costs 160 MS points ($2.00), covering either Running, Passing, Run Defense or Pass Defense, but does little (if anything) to enhance your playing skills. Shortly put, a total rip-off. Not to mention the web is full of free guides and tutorial videos, that actually teach something useful for a change.

   But it's not just tutorials. Also this month, Electronic Arts began selling unlockables (cheat codes, basically) via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07. Want to unlock all golfers and all courses? Pay up. Want to own everything in the pro shop? Pay up. Want to max out your player skills? Guess what: pay up, sucker! With prices ranging between $2.50 and $3.75 for each of these "unlockables", one would have to spend around $15 just to get all of the game's content from head start, without actually going through the trouble of playing and earning it for free.

   Some might argue that this is a very welcome option, and that EA isn't forcing players into buying something they can get for free, eventually. And that's perfectly ok. But do you honestly think that EA would stop here, when there's still so much more they can charge for?... Thought so.

   Next came The Godfather. Unlike the game's PC version, the recent Xbox 360 version no longer has cheat codes for in-game money. It does, however, give you the option to buy in-game money for real-life money. Every MMO player's dream come true? Maybe so, but we're talking about a single-player game here, and the situation is a bit more messy than that. Thanks again to Joystiq for making things clear:

"Downloading the "Level 4 Tommy Gun – Spectre Minigun" for The Godfather will set you back 100 Microsoft points ($1.25); actually getting to use the weapon will set you back $750,000 worth of in-game currency. Don't got $750,000? Don't worry. EA's got you.

You can purchase $250,000 worth of Godfather bills for an additional 150 points ($1.50). Not a bad exchange rate, eh? (Sense our sarcasm?)

Let's review: you buy the Spectre once with real money, and then again with virtual money. When you realize you don't have enough virtual money, you turn around and use more real money to buy more virtual money, so you can re-buy the gun you already bought with real money. Ain't that something?"

   So what's next? Charging money for higher quality textures and faster loading times? Oh wait, that would actually require some effort on their behalf, so it's out of the question. If only EA would take their money-making ideas and turn them into great gameplay ideas, the world would be such a better place for gamers.

P.S. There was also a micropayment debate on G4 with Major Nelson this week, in case you care.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)