Panic! Outrage! The Internet Explodes As EA Starts Charging For Demos

OMG WTF and all those other acronyms, EA has started charging for the demos of  UFC and FIFA 14 for the Xbox One!

fifa-14

The FIFA demo was free last week but now the Xbox Live store shows a cost of $4.99, or £3.99 on our store.  Let’s do a little quiz to determine what is going on, why do you think the demos for UFC and FIFA 14 now have a price tag?

  • A) It is a glitch, someone at Xbox has pressed the wrong button and it will be fixed shortly.
  • B) It is not a mistake, EA want all the moneys.
  • C) Blame Canada

If you picked A then consider yourself a rational human being, have a nice cup of tea and wait for the problem to be fixed. You also have the option of feeling a little sorry for EA who probably have nothing to do with this and it’s Microsoft’s problem.

If you scored mostly B’s then hit as many comment sections and message boards as you can and express your anger using lots of swearing, CAPITAL LETTERS and animated Gifs.

If you scored mostly C’s then you remember the South Park movie, well done.

wtf

UPDATE: The pricing is “the result of a system error,” an EA Australia representative told Polygon. Well done if you picked option A!

UPDATE #2: “The price associated with the FIFA 14 and EA SPORTS UFC demos was due to a technical error. Both demos have now been fixed in the Microsoft store.” – Statement from EA

Source: Twitter

42 Comments

  1. Source: Twitter

    So mostly B’s then.

  2. Blame Canada, obviously. It’s not even a real country, anyway.

    • I was hoping to get there first with that quote :) I’ll have to go for B then!

      • “With their beady little eyes and flapping heads so full of lies” is still available :)

  3. Must congratulate tuffcub on this article, perfect!

  4. Guess I’m all outta luck for that UFC demo, as I don’t have a first born! Think they’d just accept £10k cash?? :D

    • If you’re really desperate for the UFC demo, there are many unattended children currently knocking about at the Mcdonalds on the Northampton high street….

      • Maybe just skip the demo an buy the full game as it’s currently around £9950 cheaper :)

  5. I suppose the fact that people were willing to believe “B” tells you all you really need to know about the public perception of EA’s business practices.

  6. You forgot option D) EA were just testing the waters to see if people would pay for a demo. But if people went apeshit about it then they’d just claim it was option A. ;-)

    • I’m more inclined to believe this. Price gouging is something EA are famous for and just plain ‘option A’ seems a bit too convenient..

      I seen many “system errors” in my time and none of them resulted in suddenly adding a DLC-level price for something that could (if you’re an EA corporate exec) be considered DLC-level content.

  7. Another reason why PS4 is clearly the supirior console, micro$oft is out of touch with true hardcore gamers and are the only ones dat can sink so low as to charge for demos, you’ll never see this this happen on a SONY console.

    Also I have a very small penis. Honestly, you need a microscope to see it, it’s like a thimble.

    Written on my Motorola Razr and edited by Tuffcub.

    • Ah, nice Tuffcub. Always with the phallic jokes, ey? For your information I have a glorious mangina!

      • Pics or it didnt happen. And behave young man, none of that Micro$oft shit else it’s bed with no supper.

    • Don’t ever forget that Sony has been an absolute tit in the past so all of them can be as bad as each other. Microsoft might appear a little more brazen at times but they’re all going to push their luck from time-to-time. Thankfully, this has been written off as an error although I’m suspicious about that too. Sounds like a testing of the water to me.

      • I have a feeling my sarcasm didn’t hit home. I even added spelling errors and removed punctuation to make it more over the top… :-/

        Was hoping my previous comment history would let common readers note my sudden lack of reason… I’ll use quotes next time.

        In all honesty, I love my Xbox. And I have an Xperia…

        Oh, and this is for you Tuffcub (NSFW):

        http://charabistouilles.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/tumblr_mctjdyanol1r9qwd9o1_500.jpg

      • Aww… dammit! Didn’t notice a thing, fella. I want neon signs and alert sirens next time. ;-)

        Californication. Top, TOP show!

      • Don’t sweat it, it was all in good fun. At least I now know I can make a convincing fanboy. ;-)

      • *keeps one eye on Kenny* All too convincing! ;-)

  8. A then, thought it was a strange thing to do.

  9. Given EA were the first to introduce online passes and the first to take the piss with dlc I’m sceptical it was just an error. And I’m sure they mentioned something like this a couple of years ago.

    • People also forget they were the first to get rid of them, and when they did it was simply all unlocks and online passes under project $10 were all made free even retrospectively. Yes it was a stupid idea in the first place, but at least they didn’t persist with it, given they’d been at it long enough for people to just begrudgingly accept it was the norm

      • Yep and the scrapping of them was at the same time of rumours of the xbox one having all the anti used policies that were true (though scrapped of course). Many including me thought they only scrapped them because of that and they thought Sony would follow suit. Fortunately they didn’t.

  10. How could it be purely an error? Where would the pricing have come from? If the demo had ended up with the same price as the full game then OK, it’s a mistake, but how could a simple error come up with a £4 price tag?

    It’s a conspiracy I tells you! Where’s the tinfoil?

    • Yep, somewhere in the chain of command the price must have been decided.

      • No they didnt. Someone pressed the wrong button.

      • It’s a fair point. Never underestimate people’s stupidity coupled with a deadline to get something out.

      • Surely adding a £5 fee takes more than one button accidentally pressed. Otherwise it would be happening all the time.

      • I’m as cynical as the next person about this but monumental cock-ups do genuinely happen. Last company I worked in had the client’s servers switch off to 550 retail outlets. We found out (later on that day) that the cleaners had unplugged them and plugged in their vacuum cleaners. Seriously! Now, the question here is what tool (in IT) thought it okay to leave something so vulnerable?

        The same sort of pleb who thought “Ah, I’ll stick this down as a fiver as it won’t go up on the PSN for another few days otherwise and the boss isn’t answering his mobile”. Sure, highly unlikely and I really, REALLY think this is a test of things to come but it can (and does) happen.

        However, your Occam’s razor card is probably correct, fella. :-)

      • Really? The cleaners unplugged servers to plug the vacuum cleaner in?

        That’s the IT equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”. I’ve heard that one many times. It’s possibly a “something went wrong, we tried turning it off and on again, that fixed it, and if we blame the cleaners, we don’t have to work out what went wrong until such time as it goes wrong again” type of situation.

      • Really. The cleaners. Our director was on his way (flight from Cardiff to Edinburgh) to hand over the latest release of the software. He worked out what went wrong! It was either the vacuum cleaners or the desk fans (for the staff to keep cool) but I’m sure it was the former because the cleaners were to blame. They didn’t get much stick, to be honest. It was IT’s fault.

    • There will be some sort of back end content system on the PSN, with lots of tick boxes for prices. Somoene ticked the wrong one. Simples.

Comments are now closed for this post.