EA responds to micropayment talk

I'm sure you're all jumping for joy when you heard that EA is offering micropayments to unlock content in the game for you. Well, after hammering the phones all day, I managed to get in touch with an EA representative, David Tinson, and he answered some of my questions about the whole thing. Unfortunately, Dave was only able to answer my questions that focused on EA's sports franchise, as that's what the Canadian studio produces. Jump the button to see the juicy details DMV: Why the decision to unlock content for players as micropayments? David Tinson: We wanted to give players more options. Some people just don't have the time to sit down and play through the entirety of a dynasty mode, or unlock all the of the courses, and so we're now giving them an option to do so and enjoy the full game immediately. DMV: Are we now going to be looking at a situation like with the upcoming Gran Turismo game for PS3, where in order to unlock all the content, you have to make micropayments, all in all totaling around $300? DT: Oh, certainly not. EA has no plans to go down that path. We're just offering the ability for players to get there quicker. What we're offering, besides unlocking content, are things like strategy videos and other aids for players. Some players aren't able to go out and get a Prima strategy guide, or they need these sort of helpful videos, and we're offering it to them. DMV: So is this now going to be a regular feature that'll appear with all EA games from now on? DT: Absolutely...it's absolutely a goal towards extending the user's experience with the game. We'll be able to offer more content for users later on, we'll be able to offer more stadiums, more franchises, more teams. Thanks to the online services like Xbox live and the PS3 online system, we'll be able to offer a lot more than we've been able to in the past. DMV: So then will we be seeing periodic roster updates in the later franchises? DT: We're looking towards offering more roster updates via online content. We've been able to do this in the past with the PC versions of the game. How many points the content we'll be offering in the future is still an ongoing process, and we won't know until its soon to be released. What we're really offering now are just aids for the players that they can download, not additional content. DMV: So, you'll be charging for updated rosters? DT: No, certainly not. DMV: Any response to the angry fan letter against NBA 2007? DT: We read it, and we're always looking to see what players have to say about our works. We're working with the community to constantly improve our content, and we're actually working with some people in the community on a new patch that'll be released soon. So, now that we know a wee bit more about EA's rationalization for this, are you still as upset?