EA Forcing High Price For Fifa Street 3 At GAME?

**Booyakasha** · 22nd February 2008

EA Forcing High Price For Fifa Street 3 At GAME?

EA are forcing GAME to sell FIFA Street 3 (which is released tomorrow - Friday) at a high price point. It's alleged the reasoning behind this stems from the fact EA is refusing the sell the title to GAME at the lower price publishers usually offer to retail, thus meaning GAME has no other option but to charge the high price point to make a profit on the sale. Furthermore, it is also alleged GAME will not be supporting the title in-store, refusing to display prominently, only displaying the game on its designated chart position for the week, and not pricing matching on the game due to the possibility of making a loss of the sale.

Now, we know that Fifa Street 3 is not thee most quality filled title, but if this news is to be believed it could be seen as just the beginning of EA (and possibly other publishers) forcing the retailers hand to raise prices, and that cannot be good for the industry - and in turn us.

Interestingly, this news comes just a few short weeks after the likes of The Club, and Devil May Cry 4 where selling at bargains prices at similar stores, but now it seems we have quickly reached the other, more distasteful end of the spectrum.

Below is the memo which is believed to be currently circulating to GAME stores informing managers of the company stance on the game

Source : Darkzero.co.uk

**Tattooed Freak** · 22nd February 2008

And its a load of shite too!!

**SiE** · 22nd February 2008

EA are churning out that much shit at the moment there gonna have to be careful. People are gonna lose faith in the brand then there fucked!

I was reading over at maxconsole and they were saying the average mark for an EA game is around 72% which considerring their IP is shocking.

Now with these prices pissing off large distributors they run the risk of some serious drops in their share prices and fan base.

**B B Leo** · 22nd February 2008

i think all the games have started to creep up in price

**Booyakasha** · 23rd February 2008

Originally Posted by SiE

EA are churning out that much shit at the moment there gonna have to be careful. People are gonna lose faith in the brand then there fu(ked!

I was reading over at maxconsole and they were saying the average mark for an EA game is around 72% which considerring their IP is shocking.

Now with these prices pissing off large distributors they run the risk of some serious drops in their share prices and fan base.

I read the same article too, quite worrying really as it could signal major problems for them in the future.

The problem with EA is they never bring nothing new to the table, its just rehash of the same game's year after year,
you can only get away with this for so long.

Looking at their 2008 release schedule I see the same old same old with only 2 titles looking promising ....Army Of Two and Left4Dead
both of which will probably turn out to be very average.

Average game ratings fell by 5 per cent - "a very big deal"

Electronic Arts boss John Riccitiello has expressed concern that the average score of his company's titles has dropped by around 5 per cent from the previous year.
According to a report on Reuters it's the statistic that upsets him the most since taking the helm at the publishing giant last year.
"There is nothing acceptable about that," he said, referencing the average review score drop from 77 to 72. "Our core game titles are accurately measured and summarised by these assessments, and that is a very big deal�we need to recover here."
Electronic Arts is currently one of the world's biggest publishers, with a number of key franchises, including The Sims, FIFA and Burnout.

Source : gamesindustry.biz