Leave it to Electronic Arts to take the “online pass” idea to places you never thought it would go. Today, the publisher launched the EA Sports Season Ticket, a new service that’ll provide “premium benefits” in five EA Sports titles (Madden NFL 12, NHL 12, FIFA Soccer 12, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 and NCAA Football 13).
The Season Ticket carries an annual fee of $24.99 on the PlayStation Store (or 2000 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), subscribers will receive four benefits: the chance to download an EA Sports title three days before the retail disc version is available for sale, a 20-percent discount on in-game DLC, premium web content and membership recognition (a small icon next to your username in the game).
So after EA separates you from your $25, you’ll have access to discounts, a snazzy icon for your PSN username/Gamertag and web content like the premium Creation Center packs for FIFA Soccer 12. According to EA, “these packs provide a deeper set of customization tools and abilities within Creation Center to build your own teams and tournaments.”
But the real meat of the program appears to be the ability to download an EA Sports game three days before the regular folks who have to wait for the disc version. But buyer beware, according to EA, the downloadable version of the game will cease to work after the disc version is available in stores.
Come on EA, what is the point of that?
