$5 for Online Gameplay for Used Games

Would you pay $5 on-top of what you paid for a used game just to get the online experience of the game, this is on-top of the fee you already pay for Xbox Live or the $70 per year fee for Playstation Network Premium service. Yeah if you havent heard about that yet, Playstation will be starting a new pay service for their Network on the PS3 which will include a bunch of new feature and even free games whilst not taking away any features of the free service. Well better get used to the idea of paying an additional $5 for online gameplay for used games because its gaining momentum very quickly.


EA was the one to get the ball rolling on this new fee that they will begin implementing in 2011 on all new releases. While all the details on it arent finalized, it appears that any used game bought, borrowed, or even stolen will need a one time access code to get online that will most likely be assigned to an account so it cant be used again on someone else's account. For EA and the developers this is a great thing because they get money where they previously didnt get anything. Publishers and Developers only get money from new games as it is right now.

For end user, the gamers, this could be quite troublesome and a great annoyance. Obviously, for pre-orders and games purchased brand new there will be no effect on them. However for the people that buy from the used bin at the local store or from ebay they will have to buy the game and then pay this fee on-top of it. Now how it will play out in the market is yet to be known, the used games might be cheaper and hurt the reseller as the actual value of the game is less because of these new terms. At this time, it is unknown how this will play out with rentals. If renters have to pay this fee for games they are only going to be playing for a week or two, there will either be a huge decline in rents and a big increase in sales or just a lack of the game being played all together. The worst part of this would be if you have a lot of friends that game and often trade games between each other. Although at the same time, paying only $5 for a game is a deal. Many gamers buy used games instead of buying new because the game in the first place isnt a top game and not worth the full retail price. They may be worried about paying the extra money on-top of buying the used game just for the online game play if the experience is not worth it. Well with EAs plan they will be allow a trial period of online gameplay for the gamer to decide if the extra $5 is worth it or not for them. Other Gamers are complaining about how their $40 Xbox Live yearly subscription for online gameplay is being void if they have to pay on-top of that just to play online. This is a very valid point, but that money for XBL goes to completely different sources and has nothing to do with the developers and their servers. EA in particular run all their servers and back-ends for all their developers.

All in all i dont see this hurting Publishers in any way. Apparently they feel the same and others are following suit. THQ is going to be the first to implement this scheme with UFC 2010. Ubisoft is currently considering this, but have not made any decisions yet.