The EA Play discount has utterly predatory marketing behind it.

[Jorde]

The cost is listed as 99 cents, but in reality it only saves you $4 on a 60$ a year charge, and finding the real price required scrolling for 20 seconds past a long list of games. The marketing is downright false and intentionally hiding the real price. And Steam is abetting this by making the EA Play impossible to review, and letting the price be hidden.

[ReBoot]

It's 99 cents for one month as displayed when you click that "Join" button. That's not hiding the real price, that's you making assumptions.

[Jorde]

The real price is 5$ a month, while the 0.99$ for one month charge is what's being displayed all over the Steam Store

[Crazy Tiger]

How is it predatory when it is literally listed that after the first month it's the normal price?
https://imgur.com/a/aLxEW27

Edit: Even store pages for games list that EA Play only has that price for the first month: https://imgur.com/a/4etyPuY

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Jorde:

The real price is 5$ a month, while the 0.99$ for one month charge is what's being displayed all over the Steam Store

Discounts are temporary, subscriptions are recurring. If you thought you'd get the discounted monthly price forever, that's wishful thinking speaking.

[Jorde]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

How is it predatory when it is literally listed that after the first month it's the normal price?

Mostly talking about this:
https://imgur.com/a/YmUtJY9

The price I saw displayed up front and center was $0.99. But it only saves you 4$, and you have to click the join button, or scroll down for 20 seconds past a long list of games to see the real price. What I saw on the Steam page also didn't navigate me to that store page you showed.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Jorde:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

How is it predatory when it is literally listed that after the first month it's the normal price?

Mostly talking about this:
https://imgur.com/a/YmUtJY9

The price I saw displayed up front and center was $0.99. But it only saves you 4$, and you have to click the join button, or scroll down for 20 seconds past a long list of games to see the real price. What I saw on the Steam page also didn't navigate me to that store page you showed.

EA Play is a subscription. Recurrent payment for recurrent service, that's the definition of a subscription.
The price you see in this screenshot is a temporary discount. Had the price been reduced permanently, there would be no "80% off" and that would not be a special.
You assuming this temporary discount to be permanent is your fault.
You scrolling down 20 seconds doesn't make your complaint any more valid either, there's that "Join" button right on top of the page that scrolls you down right to the pricing. Either way, you get told EXACTLY what you're subscribing to before subscribing, that's very much legal.

[Jorde]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

EA Play is a subscription. Recurrent payment for recurrent service, that's the definition of a subscription.
The price you see in this screenshot is a temporary discount.
You assuming this temporary discount to be permanent is your fault.
You scrolling down 20 seconds doesn't make your complaint any more valid either, there's that "Join" button right on top of the page that scrolls you down right to the pricing.

Thanks for assuming I thought it was permanent. But yeah you're right, the real price is fairly easy to get to, even if it is buried. I'm still annoyed by the lack of reviews on something displayed at the top of the Steam store.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Jorde:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

EA Play is a subscription. Recurrent payment for recurrent service, that's the definition of a subscription.
The price you see in this screenshot is a temporary discount.
You assuming this temporary discount to be permanent is your fault.
You scrolling down 20 seconds doesn't make your complaint any more valid either, there's that "Join" button right on top of the page that scrolls you down right to the pricing.

Thanks for assuming I thought it was permanent

What else was I supposed to assume? You're raving about that 99 cents price being false advertising because it's only the first month, not the second and so on. To me, the current temporary discount being temporary is logical but you complain about it. The only logical connection I can think of is you assuming that 99 cents price being permanent, any other assumption doesn't lead to false advertising.

Originally posted by Jorde:

the real price is fairly easy to get to, even if it is buried

It's not. That "join" button on top of the EA Play page immediately jumps you to the pricing structure. Even your own screenshot shows the "real" price! I clearly see that 4,99$ being there, TEMPORARILY replaced (because if it was permanently replaced, there would be no 4,99$ anywhere) by 0,99$. 4,99$ and 0,99$ sitting right next to each other.

Originally posted by Jorde:

I'm still annoyed by the lack of reviews on something displayed at the top of the Steam store.

There's no reviews for EA Play, on top, bottom or anywhere. But you get told what games are included and those have their own reviews.

[Jorde]

I'm still annoyed by the lack of reviews on something displayed at the top of the Steam store.

It basically means a major listing is immune to public perception, unlike most other Steam titles. Average review rating is a major part of factoring in whether you should buy something, and Steam has incentivised this by letting review rating be displayed along with most Steam titles. Except this one.

It's at the top, but it can't be affected by a review rating, good or bad, which gives it a major advantage compared to pretty much everything else on the Steam store.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Jorde:

I'm still annoyed by the lack of reviews on something displayed at the top of the Steam store.

It basically means a major listing is immune to public perception, unlike most other Steam titles. Average review rating is a major part of factoring in whether you should buy something, and Steam has incentivised this by letting review rating be displayed along with most Steam titles. Except this one.

It's at the top, but it can't be affected by a review rating, good or bad, which gives it a major advantage compared to pretty much everything else on the Steam store.

Show me ONE major listing that not a subscription that is, as you say, immune to public perception. Just one.

You can't do it. Because there's none. Every. Single. Game. On Steam got reviews (or can have reviews, I've seen games with no reviews yet). That particular listing you're talking about is a SUBSCRIPTION, not a singular game. That subscription includes games, games included in this subscription are disclosed so you can check their respective reviews.

The same is true for bundles, by the way. BUYABLE bundles don't have reviews for the whole bundle either. But they disclose the included games with those games having their reviews.

Now it would be nice if Valve would include an aggregated review score for all games in that subscription, but that doesn't change the fact that you've still no idea what a subscription is, apparently.

You're comparing EA Play to every other listing on Steam. Every other listing is a one-time-purchase-play-forever-game. EA Play on the oher hand is a subscription, you pay monthly (or yearly) and get to play the included games as long as you pay.

I know for a fact that the concepts of BUYING and SUBSCRIBING exist in the US, so it can't be a cultural thing that you don't get the difference.

[Jorde]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Show me ONE major listing that not a subscription that is, as you say, immune to public perception. Just one.

You can't do it. Because there's none. Every. Single. Game. On Steam got reviews (or can have reviews, I've seen games with no reviews yet). That particular listing you're talking about is a SUBSCRIPTION, not a singular game. That subscription includes games, games included in this subscription are disclosed so you can check their respective reviews.

That's pretty much my point. This subscription is at the top like many Steam games, but those Steam games have to display the average review rating (which is up to consumer input, good or bad), but EA Play doesn't. Just because it's not a game doesn't mean people shouldn't be able to comment on whether it was a worthy sale for them.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Jorde:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

How is it predatory when it is literally listed that after the first month it's the normal price?

Mostly talking about this:
https://imgur.com/a/YmUtJY9

The price I saw displayed up front and center was $0.99. But it only saves you 4$, and you have to click the join button, or scroll down for 20 seconds past a long list of games to see the real price. What I saw on the Steam page also didn't navigate me to that store page you showed.

That's how marketing works everywhere. At first they show you something that gets your interest, then you go through the pages that list everything regarding the item, including the terms. What matters is whether the terms are clear before you add things to the cart. And those are very obviously clear. Nothing predatory about it.

The store page I listed was for a game that is part of EA Play, Mass Effect 2 in this case. It was a simple example to show that your statements that the real price is hidden and the false price is listed "all over the store" are false.

Originally posted by Jorde:

It's at the top, but it can't be affected by a review rating, good or bad, which gives it a major advantage compared to pretty much everything else on the Steam store.

It's a subscription and what is included is fully disclosed. People can visit the various store pages and from that judge whether the value is good.

It's also highly questionable whether not having a review rating is a "major advantage". Me thinks it doesn't actually matter, since the reviews for the games are available and more important.

Personally I think people should get EA Play on Origin, since it includes more games there. EA can't include 3rd party games on EA Play on Steam, it seems, but on their own launcher they can.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Jorde:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Show me ONE major listing that not a subscription that is, as you say, immune to public perception. Just one.

You can't do it. Because there's none. Every. Single. Game. On Steam got reviews (or can have reviews, I've seen games with no reviews yet). That particular listing you're talking about is a SUBSCRIPTION, not a singular game. That subscription includes games, games included in this subscription are disclosed so you can check their respective reviews.

That's pretty much my point. This subscription is at the top like many Steam games, but those Steam games have to display the average review rating (which is up to consumer input, good or bad), but EA Play doesn't. Just because it's not a game doesn't mean people shouldn't be able to comment on whether it was a worthy sale for them.

You sitll don't understand that a subscription is for a GROUP OF GAMES, not SINGLE GAMES. In fact, this subscription is absolutely symmetrical to bundles. Bundle pages on Steam don't have aggregated review scores either. Bundles disclose all the included games so you can check their respective ratings. This subscription is exactly like that: it's a group of games, bundled together. You get told what's included. JUST LIKE ANY OTHER BUNDLE ON STEAM!
Compare EA Play to https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/404/Shadow_Warrior_Collection/ or to https://store.steampowered.com/sub/427289/ How is EA Play different from those?

[Jorde]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

How is EA Play different from those?

EA Play is paying a monthly fee for the ability to play a ton of games for up to 10 hours, and a 10% discount on buying those games. This makes it very distinct from bundles (which usually have only a few games, or 1 main one) so it's easy to just look at those game's reviews. But this one has a unique payment method and also has no meat on its own bones. But nobody is able to say that, or maybe say they are happy with it.

I'm suggesting a review system for this subscription service itself. It's a prominent Steam listing with no review rating possible, it's not an optional bundle.

[м]

Originally posted by Jorde:

EA Play is paying a monthly fee for the ability to play a ton of games for up to 10 hours,.

only the new release games are limited to 10 hours, not the older ones.