One of the big controversies regarding the Xbox One's policies was that there would be the option of used game fees: a system-based service fee charged to the seller to deactivate and reactivate a license for a game using Microsoft's Azure cloud service. Well, Microsoft has said that there would be no mandatory used game fee but it would be left up to publishers. In the eyes of EA, they're completely undecided on how to deal with this conundrum.
Speaking with Polygon, Electronic Arts chief operating officer, Peter Moore, stated that...
"Sony have announced what they are going to do which is, y'know, business as usual, and then Microsoft are looking at allowing a publisher to opt-in, should they choose to do so. But if we opt in, do [Microsoft] charge a fee, and if so, how much?""We have not internally even begun to sit down and answer those questions,"
Moore also reiterated the same thing to the Dorito Pope during a post-E3 conference held by EA, mentioning that they needed to head back to the boardroom and storm out the specifics on how they're going to proceed.
In case you didn't know, EA has abandoned the Online Pass system, meaning you'll no longer have to pay an additional fee to access the multiplayer portions of a pre-owned game. The company has walked away from this DRM measure and now there's no turning back.
According to GameIndustry.biz, Moore further stated that...
"EA has never had a conversation, and I have been present at all of them, with all of the manufacturers, saying you must put a system in place that allows us to take a piece of the action or even stop it. Absolutely incorrect.""We will figure out what we need to do. I'm not trying to back-pedal but this thing just happened and we need to reconvene and hear what people think and talk to our retail partners and our first party partners. We had no idea what Sony was going to announce. We'll reconvene next week and figure it all out.""Not saying, you know, it was Austin Powers type meeting of Doctor Evils saying [places pinkie finger on eyetooth, Dr. Evil-style] 'we know we can get it back down the road'. No. That was not the meeting I was in. Online Pass was more trouble to the consumer than it was worth."
This also comes on the heels of Sony saying that they have no restrictive DRM in place and have not implemented any measures on the metal to enforce disc-based DRM. Sony's anti-DRM stance comes straight from Sony of America's CEO, Jack Tretton, who dropped the big bomb at E3 much to the delight of gamers.
I don't know if Sony's strong-arming for pro-consumerism will force EA to straighten up their ways, or if the opportunity afforded by Microsoft to allow the two-time running Worst Company in America to make good on the used game fee will take effect, but EA is definitely the one to watch during this whole thing in regards to used game fees and used game DRM.
(Main image courtesy of Polygon)
