EA has its name on hundreds of video games. Is it EA that's greedy here? For their recent Tiger Woods 12 game for Xbox360, you must have purchased the actual game via retail, in order to play it online against others. The game comes with a code you must submit to unlock online playing. So not only do Xbox members already pay a yearly SUBSCRIPTION FEE TO PLAY GAMES ONLINE, we now can't even play certain games online, unless we buy it or pay another fee?? Seems greedy. Imagine in the near future that you'll have to register each game. You'll no longer be able to borrow a friend's game and play it on your xbox, because you don't have that 'code' synced up to your system. Imagine renting a dvd and then having to do an electronic purchase to watch the dvd for a 2nd time at home. I see the future.

I understand when games come with special perks for the act of pre-ordering a video game, but this is different. The game was $60 on its own for f's sake! What does that $60 get me? Since EA also decided to no longer put instruction manuals in the case, they save even more money on that. Another way to inconvenience your customers is by taking away the instructions to the game itself. You'll need a separate computer with the manual pulled up by PDF to view it.

Almost a quarter of the golf courses in Tiger Woods 12 are only available by purchasing through the marketplace. A single golf course may cost $6 just to be able to play it. If you don't buy it, you'll never get to play. Make me do something crazy like birdie 18 holes in a row to unlock it, not make me buy it like this is Monopoly.

If games like Farmville and anything in the App Store weren't bad enough. Whoring out 99cent games as quick as a woman on welfare has kids, slaps the real video game industry in the face. But other companies like EA are learning from this craze. Micropurchases are where it's at. But this is not a good thing for consumers. You'll end up paying way more in the long run. Instead of buying a game online for $30, you'll download it free---But you'll have to constantly pay for advancement in the game.

What's next? If I beat the first level in Mario, do I have to buy the next level to play? So if I buy a game, do I actual own the game? Did I even buy a game, or did I buy a gateway for companies to suck money out of me through tiny little purchases, which all add up. Think of the millions of people who bought those dumb little icons on Facebook for $1. Oh it's only $1 you say. Well, when millions of people do it, it's millions of dollars. For EA it's great, because there is twice the incentive to buy their product instead of renting, but for consumers it is not a good sign.