EA & ESPN get greedier, offering Madden pay-per-view preview

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jul 25th 2006 at 3:55PM }

EA and ESPN are inviting you to plunk down $20 and watch a pay-per-view preview of Madden NFL 07 beginning on August 4, 18 days before the game's official release. Anyone who's actually planning to pay the price of admission please do us a favor ... smack yourself! 'Nuff said.

Tags: EA, ESPN, Madden, Madden NFL 07, MaddenNfl07

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Todd H. @ Jul 25th 2006 4:00PM

I'll wait for a torrent to appear on TheBay, it's only a matter of time and it's way cheaper!

Todd
http://www.proxbox360.com

Catalyst @ Jul 25th 2006 4:01PM

Wow. Just wow.

I'll sum it up for you - Shit looks shinier than last year, and now their is some totally useless feature they are touting as revolutionary!

fwacce @ Jul 25th 2006 4:03PM

Today's not April First.

adam @ Jul 25th 2006 4:07PM

Welcome to "episodic content 2.0"

JimmyHACK @ Jul 25th 2006 4:09PM

i wont pay for it, i'll watch it on youtube the day after :)...

can't hold it against them, if people pay for it, ea/espn are doing something..

they are in business to make money of course

Nick D @ Jul 25th 2006 4:09PM

Hello EA & ESPN, I'd like to pay $19.95 to watch a 1-hour COMMERCIAL!!!

Is someone actually stupid enough to pay for this!?

Jake @ Jul 25th 2006 4:11PM

That just can't be right, can it? 20 dollars seems unbelievable. I don't mean omg EA sux unbelievable, but rather that probably isn't true unbelievable.

If that is true that may be the worst way to spend 20 dollars ever.

jabbertrack @ Jul 25th 2006 4:12PM

I know quite a few people dumb enough to pay for this, including one who named his son Madden because he likes the game so much.

Tondog @ Jul 25th 2006 4:20PM

Would anyone do this for something like Halo 3, Final Fantasy whatever the hell they're up to now, or something? If so, and you're hating on EA for doing this, then you are officially a hypocrite. That is all.

Jody Anthony @ Jul 25th 2006 4:24PM

Tondog, I don't think anyone would really be stupid enough to pay $20 to watch a commercial.

IslandLife @ Jul 25th 2006 4:29PM

Two of the wealthiest and biggest companies in sports and gaming combine their powers to try and milk consumers out $20 for an hour long commercial. A bunch of SLIMY PARASITIC WORMS IN SUITS is what they are.

Drew @ Jul 25th 2006 4:29PM

Going to see a full-length movie in a theater costs less than half of that.

lothar @ Jul 25th 2006 4:29PM

People went to movies just to see a movie trailer (forget which one). Last time I checked Infomercials paid they're audience to attend.

EA should have something like with the $20 you get a $40 in various EA Game coupons + a strategy guide / or other game book. Sucks so much that they're the monopoly on sports games. I thought ESPN 2005 NFL was the best game, add the fact that it was a $20 release and you had what the whole industry should be, competitive not monopolize.

Arex @ Jul 25th 2006 4:29PM

Only a sucker would pay $20 for an unplayable video demo of a game. On the other hand, there are countless suckers out there and if EA and ESPN can get a good number of those folks to pay for the demo, more power to them.

Tondog @ Jul 25th 2006 4:34PM

Jody, I'd hope not, but I can see some people paying to see the latest Final Fantasy trailer. I'm just curious what would have happened if it wasn't EA and ESPN that did this. I'd imagine that the reaction wouldn't be as bad as it has been here.

I'm just wondering why they decided to air it on pay per view. Don't you think that they would have thought that it would be a long shot to get people to watch it? It would have been much simpler to just air it on ESPN.

iceatcs @ Jul 25th 2006 4:43PM

Tondog

It is depend of the price. If Final Fantasy going to same cost to view like this one, everyone will have same reaction.

Just like PS3 problem - many hate it because of the price. If it was less than xbox360, everyone will going fall in love it.

JimyD @ Jul 25th 2006 4:55PM

That is simply ridiculous. You would have to be a total sucker to throw away $20 to watch a bunch of marketing fluff!

Smack042 @ Jul 25th 2006 4:56PM

Geez and i thought $2.50 for some horse armor was to much...

Ice @ Jul 25th 2006 4:59PM

#11. said " Two of the wealthiest and biggest companies in sports and gaming combine their powers to try and milk consumers out $20 for an hour long commercial. A bunch of SLIMY PARASITIC WORMS IN SUITS is what they are."

How is it milking to offer something to someone? No one is forcing anyone to buy it. It's on the stupid people that buy it not the company who offers it. If no one buys the PPV then I'll bet there won't be a Madden 08 PPV. But my guess is their market research says that people will buy it. Can't blame them for taking the money.

If someone said there was a sack of money on your doorstep but you already had enough money to sustain you would you not go out and get the money?

There is a reason they became they are the "biggest and wealthiest companies in the world. Savvy business sense.

Leshrac @ Jul 25th 2006 5:02PM

Well, I think you can partially blame the success of Xbox Live's micropayments for this kind of thing. I guess the publishers realized that some people will just pony up whatever for their extra content/preview/whatever.

I love how everyone just complains and complains about this kind of thing for the Live, but then goes right ahead and downloads it anyway. Penny Arcade even did a comic complaining about the price for the GRAW content, but then ALSO complained about how they were having trouble downloading it... Yeah, that should send a strong message to those companies.

Here's a hint... companies won't stop overcharging unless people actually STOP BUYING THESE THINGS. I'm not against paying for premium/extra content, but it seems pretty clear that these companies are now emboldened to charge whatever they like for new content.

As for this specifically, I can't imagine how this could be worth $5, let alone $20. If people buy into this, maybe they can charge $30 for the Xbox Live demo... just think, instead of just a video preview, you get to PLAY the game. That has to be worth at least $10 more than just the video preview. After you've shelled out $50 for the video and the demo, just think... for just another $60, you can be the proud owner of Madden '07... just don't expect the most updated rosters yet... you'll have to shell out another $10 for that.

Ervin @ Jul 25th 2006 5:03PM

i could see this working if it was tied to like a pre order system like you pay 5 dollars to watch and the other 15 goes to the purchace of the game. it just seems crazy that you would pay 20 dollars to get a preview of a game you will have to buy less then 20 days later. is anyone that excited about the new madden that they would pay almost 100 total for the game?

Mez Jr @ Jul 25th 2006 6:01PM

Well at this point its clear even before this that EA is anti-consumer.

The monopolization of any football of note and failing to deliver a complete "Next Gen" football title for the first 2 years of this new generation. Madden '07 still lacks owner mode, NCAA presents half of the authentic stadiums and no D1-AA teams.

ESPN "integration" is beyond a joke, it basically amounts to a ticker at the bottom of your screen. Didnt 2K5 have full sports center presentation?

I dont recall EA taking 2 years to get their software up to speed last generation, thats probably because they had some competition.

It's damn sad too.

Judd @ Jul 25th 2006 6:28PM

I felt pretty dumb after paying $18 to get the "IGN Insider" subscribtion. Those are also just videos and not anything you could actually play, plus most of the site is availabe for free anyway.

Then again we're talking about hundreds of videos and it lasts for a year and not an hour.

Here's the better question, if this was on during primetime, when you watch whatever shows there is to watch in the summertime, would you watch this program for free? Personally, if it was free I wouldn't watch it even if I wasn't watching anything specific. I might flip through and watch it for a couple of minutes, but you'd have to PAY ME to sit through an hour explaining everything that we all already know about a title that comes out in less than a month.

And I kinda think it's different with something like Halo 3 or the next Final Fantasy because those are games no one knows about yet. Let's say there was a Halo 3 trailer that debuted on Xbox Live for $2.50 like the horse armor pack( There's no way in hell I'd pay $20, but maybe up to $5). This would have to be more than just a two minute trailer but maybe a half hour video, that would come out over a year before the games release and reveal tons of new information. But this was also an exclusive thing where people are told that it would be illegal to reveal to anyone else, just like how Joystiq and IGN often have information they can't reveal to us just yet. Maybe then, and only then would I or should anybody pay for a video game you can only watch.

Then again people pay $50 bucks for Metal Gear Solid. Ba-dum-dum.

AoE @ Jul 25th 2006 6:30PM

This is pure awesomeness, not only are EA/ESPN going to make a bundle (lets face it, enough Madden fans will buy into this to make it completely worthwhile); but they're showing how completely corporate and evil. If you're offended by this move, but still buy EA games (even if only ocassionally) just remember you helped fund this!

K1ller 1ns1nct @ Jul 25th 2006 7:07PM

This makes no sense at all, only people that will plop that money down are the magazine and blog writers

LaughingMan @ Jul 25th 2006 7:44PM

Hmmm this is one of those "too good to be true" articles. I mean we ALL want to hate EA, but something feels wrong about this.

But if it's all true? Unbelievable. I always thought the EA bashing was a little out of hand, but (if this is true) this changes my opinion completely. What could they possibly show us that would be worth paying for? It's a football game, we pretty much know 99.9 percent of what their is going to be.

Greg @ Jul 25th 2006 8:04PM

Smack yo self and yo momma for not raising you better and teaching you the value of a dollar!

Hardcore @ Jul 25th 2006 8:35PM

It better come with some sucky sucky for $20

Oneiros Dreaming @ Jul 25th 2006 8:45PM

If someone said there was a sack of money on your doorstep but you already had enough money to sustain you would you not go out and get the money?

Me, I'd let someone who needed it have it.

There is a reason they became they are the "biggest and wealthiest companies in the world. Savvy business sense.

Huh, and I thought it was from unpaid overtime.

32_footsteps @ Jul 25th 2006 10:18PM

You know what's interesting? I was given a heads up about this too. But I wasn't alerted by EA, or by ESPN. I was alerted by Rob "Reality" Wynn, famous for winning Spike TV's "Ultimate Gamer" competition over a year ago.

I'm admittedly morbidly curious.

Bender @ Jul 26th 2006 1:09AM

Thank you ICE #19!

When I read the headline for this post 'EA & ESPN get greedier' I thought to myself, 'hang on, so they're trying to make some more money?'...

This is an extra product being sold by EA through ESPN for those who are hardcore Madden fans, the price is no doubt what they think people will pay.

Nobody is forced to watch this, just as nobody is forced to buy Madden.

Regardless of the business practices of EA in the past, present or future, this is, simply put, a product that you can choose to buy or not.

It's not greedy to sell a product.

Troy Gilbert @ Jul 26th 2006 5:37PM

So, why is EA/ESPN evil and anti-consumer for this? Sure, I'd agree that spending $20 on the infomercial is probably not money well spent, but neither are lotto tickets or, in fact, most PPV movies. But hey, it's folks' money, it's entertainment, what's the problem?

Posts like this just lower the overall value of websites like Joystiq. Now, if the post had simply stated the fact that this existed and commented that whatever content included was not likely worth $20, that's fine. But to make the association that EA/ESPN are somehow "greedy" is rather odd... they're commercial ventures, out to make money, through entertainment... apparently, they believe they can sell their PPV product at that price. If they can, great. If they can't... well... whoop-de-doo.

In other words... who f*ck'n cares?