EA sells Tiger Woods cheats on XBL

They're charging $3 for a red shirt? WTF is up with EA being so greedy with their games? First Madden charged you for classic costumes and stadiums and now this.

There are some downloads I can understand, like Lego Star Wars 2, since you need Lego Star Wars 1 save to unlock the costumes, which there was no LSW1 on the 360.
 
EA are the biggest fuck ckers in the entire game industry. They are a big corporation and they have loose values- when they see an opportunity for money they will take it no matter how sleazy it makes then appear. Some examples are the DL content that would normally be free and how they are making a Skateboarding game and insulting the TH francise in their press releases. I for one stopped buying their games a LONG time ago not because I thought it would do anything but because I couldn't support such an awful, nasty group of people.
 
The marketplace had a lot of potential to be a nice tool to bring additional content to gamers for a reasonable price, but I'm completely disguisted by what it has become. Microsoft needs to put their foot down. They need to start regulating what can and cannot be released on the marketplace. I realize that if something is put out there which I don't feel is worth my money, I don't have to buy it. But I feel sickened just to know that greedy scumbags are making money off cheat codes that should be in the game anyway.

The marketplace is supposed to be a selling point for the system...somewhere we can get additional content to games we love for an affordable price. I'm sick of sleazy companies such as EA taking advantage of the system to rip people off by selling content that should have been there all along.
 
I somewhat agree with delirium.

The simple solution is this: don't fucking buy it.

$3 horse armor buyers, $3 stadium/jersey buyers, $3 cheat buyers, you have fucking NOBODY to blame other than yourself.

I want a "complete" game, too, but I'm not paying the price they demand for it. Simply put, they don't deserve to be rewarded for giving me less of a game than they intended to put out.
 
[quote name='delirium266']The marketplace had a lot of potential to be a nice tool to bring additional content to gamers for a reasonable price, but I'm completely disguisted by what it has become. Microsoft needs to put their foot down. They need to start regulating what can and cannot be released on the marketplace. I realize that if something is put out there which I don't feel is worth my money, I don't have to buy it. But I feel sickened just to know that greedy scumbags are making money off cheat codes that should be in the game anyway.

The marketplace is supposed to be a selling point for the system...somewhere we can get additional content to games we love for an affordable price. I'm sick of sleazy companies such as EA taking advantage of the system to rip people off by selling content that should have been there all along.[/QUOTE]
Yeah. They're really starting to abuse the Marketplace.

Like with the map download for Battle for Middle-Earth II.

1.) The maps are on the disc! You don't actually download the maps; you download the unlocking of the maps.

2.) EA offered those maps as a pre-order bonus... but never gave them out to those who preordered them.

3.) The maps are already on the motherfuckin' disc!!!!

EA is starting a bad trend, and I hope other publishers won't follow suit.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']The simple solution is this: don't fucking buy it.[/QUOTE]
It's not that easy, though.

You could put a hunk of literal dogshit on the Marketplace for 300 points, and a handful of a few hundred of douche bags will buy it.

Regardless of that, this could cause a trend. These are cheats that they're selling. I'm not one for cheats, myself... but what has this become where they're selling something that used to be free. This isn't like the horse armor, by any means.

"Aw, gee. Nobody downloaded the cheats... maybe we should just include them in the next installment."

Why? To loose the off-chance that they will make some money buy putting it on the marketplace; and how it doesn't cost them any money, or sales, to include them in the game from the get-go?

I can only see EA getting bolder and bolder with this shit.
 
Some things like this are becoming a really bad trend on the Marketplace. I won't buy it, but a lot of people do. Developers are seeing they can make money off of this. So now we will be forced to buy things that are purposely left out of games so we have to spend more money down the road. I can see if the MSRP of the games were cheaper but if they are already charging more money for a game and then leave out stuff on purpose so they can make even more that's jsut bad for the consumer. Certain things like extra maps, tracks etc. can be ok. But things like alt uniforms, cheats, etc. stuff that used to be in games when you bought it at retail (for less than $60) is just ridiculous.
 
[quote name='Brak']You could put a hunk of literal dogshit on the Marketplace for 300 points, and a handful of a few hundred of douche bags will buy it.[/QUOTE]

Well, then, tough shit. "Them's the breaks."

What else do you recommend? Shall we organize and stage a die-in at EA headquarters?

It's easy to act outraged and claim that all microtransactions are cynical and/or malicious; the problem is, they're finding out the market at the same time we are. There are lotsa unanswered questions:

What is the pricepoint at which people won't pay for *any* downloadable title?

What items/products will people not buy?

Will they buy "disposable" items?

Do they expect some things for free?

Are gamers so compulsive that they must buy/download everything associated with this game (such that a piece of turd with "Master Chief" on it would sell like hotcakes)? Or, are they particular?

Nobody knows the answer to these questions yet, as this is a brand spankin' new market. It has its upsides and downsides. We're seeing it play out in realtime is all. It's easy to think EA is purely sinister in everything they do (and the EULA about spyware included with Battlefield 2142 does EA no favors in that regard, either); I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

It's free money for EA, sure. But it's not your money if you don't buy it, and that's the only goddamned power you have. Unless you wanna do a die-in.
 
[quote name='Brak']It's not that easy, though.

You could put a hunk of literal dogshit on the Marketplace for 300 points, and a handful of a few hundred of douche bags will buy it.

Regardless of that, this could cause a trend. These are cheats that they're selling. I'm not one for cheats, myself... but what has this become where they're selling something that used to be free. This isn't like the horse armor, by any means.

"Aw, gee. Nobody downloaded the cheats... maybe we should just include them in the next installment."

Why? To loose the off-chance that they will make some money buy putting it on the marketplace; and how it doesn't cost them any money, or sales, to include them in the game from the get-go?

I can only see EA getting bolder and bolder with this shit.[/quote]

The worst thing is they aren't even like... cheats to make the game easier or adding any functionality to the game to make it more fun. This is asking you to pay a fee to unlock the full content for a game you paid for. As in, "single player is boring, I'd really just like to be able to play all the courses without having to do all this career mode bullshit".

Now, what's to stop them from just making it really really hard to unlock all of the game's courses?
 
I definately think this is a slippery slope, but in this instance I don't really see the problem with it. If you can unlock the courses and characters like you normally would, then the cheats aren't necessary for you. If you are lazy and want to be able to play all the courses from the get-go without playing through the game a few times than that option is there for you as well.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Well, then, tough shit. "Them's the breaks."

What else do you recommend? Shall we organize and stage a die-in at EA headquarters?

It's easy to act outraged and claim that all microtransactions are cynical and/or malicious; the problem is, they're finding out the market at the same time we are. There are lotsa unanswered questions:

What is the pricepoint at which people won't pay for *any* downloadable title?

What items/products will people not buy?

Will they buy "disposable" items?

Do they expect some things for free?

Are gamers so compulsive that they must buy/download everything associated with this game (such that a piece of turd with "Master Chief" on it would sell like hotcakes)? Or, are they particular?

Nobody knows the answer to these questions yet, as this is a brand spankin' new market. It has its upsides and downsides. We're seeing it play out in realtime is all. It's easy to think EA is purely sinister in everything they do (and the EULA about spyware included with Battlefield 2142 does EA no favors in that regard, either); I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

It's free money for EA, sure. But it's not your money if you don't buy it, and that's the only goddamned power you have. Unless you wanna do a die-in.[/QUOTE]

This is the end of the thread, right here.

I really can't add anything more to this, it's perfect as it is, so I will quote it so everyone can read it a second time.

I mean, maybe you or me won't buy the cheats, but casual joe gamer might say "300 points, that's not alot to unlock the entire game from the get go" will love the idea. Plus, the stuff can still be accessible the old fashioned way.

Now, 300 points per retro stadium for Madden 07, that's some bullshit right there, since that was stuff that was free for years.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']I definately think this is a slippery slope, but in this instance I don't really see the problem with it. If you can unlock the courses and characters like you normally would, then the cheats aren't necessary for you. If you are lazy and want to be able to play all the courses from the get-go without playing through the game a few times than that option is there for you as well.[/QUOTE]

By and large, I agree with you. However one of the items that they are offering is reprehensible.

"Players wanting to take a shortcut to greatness can also shell out 200 points for the Maxed-Out Player add-on, which will set their created golfers' stats to 110 percent across the board."

I am not familiar enough with Tiger Woods to know wether or not you can take user created golfers online, but, if you can, this is the type of marketplace "item" that I have a problem with. Namely, that those who pay will have an unfair advantage in online play.
 
[quote name='tangytangerine']They're charging $3 for a red shirt? WTF is up with EA being so greedy with their games? First Madden charged you for classic costumes and stadiums and now this.

There are some downloads I can understand, like Lego Star Wars 2, since you need Lego Star Wars 1 save to unlock the costumes, which there was no LSW1 on the 360.[/QUOTE]
there is no LSW1 on PSP either, and they created a new challenge mode just so you can unlock the original characters in LSWII on PSP.
 
[quote name='62t']there is no LSW1 on PSP either, and they create a new mode just so you can unlock the original characters in LSWII on PSP.[/QUOTE]

A new mode that easily makes it better than any other version.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Well, then, tough shit. "Them's the breaks."

What else do you recommend? Shall we organize and stage a die-in at EA headquarters?[/QUOTE]
I'm not suggesting we do anything, as there is nothing to do.

I'm merely talking about how shitty it is.
 
[quote name='RedvsBlue']A new mode that easily makes it better than any other version.[/QUOTE]
not only that they also throw in some levels from LSW1 for the PSP version. The only down side is for some reason the Bounty Hunter Missions are missing.
 
[quote name='Brak']I'm not suggesting we do anything, as there is nothing to do.

I'm merely talking about how shitty it is.[/QUOTE]

Shitty, yes, but necessary to test the waters. Gamers like us only make up about 5 - 10% of the total population... they have to see how the other 90% will react.

Hell, for every 1 person who says this is stupid, there could be 10 people who are like "EA YOU ROCK AWESOME!!!".

For the record, I'm neither for or against it... but if I was a casual gamer and didn't want to bother with unlocking stuff, I'd probably buy the cheats.
 
Yeah, no big deal, if you're a casual gamer who doesn't have the time, buy the cheats. If you're a hardcore gamer, unlock the stuff the honest way. How does this hurt anyone? Granted, $3 for a red shirt IS pretty stupid though.

In terms of the actual game, I was pretty impressed with the demo. The game is actually challenging this time! I might rent it. I just hope the CAG customization is as good as it is on the current gen consoles, since i'm a sucker for dressing my virtual me into all sorts of snazzy clothes.
 
[quote name='Brak']I'm not suggesting we do anything, as there is nothing to do.

I'm merely talking about how shitty it is.[/QUOTE]

I don't want to play the slippery slope now, but just you wait...just you wait. If you think it's shitty now, let's see what happens if people buy this in substantial numbers.

There's no way to access that kind of data, is there?
 
The only way to confirm download success is by companies making PR announcements. They aren't tracked by NPD data. I just remember a month or so after the COD2 map pack releases Activision stated they had made an additional $1 million just from the downloads. So we only have that to go by. Bethesda only said about the horse armor, "It exceeded our expectations." without offering download figures or dollar amounts.

Why is anyone surprised EA is doing this?

This is what a monopoly sports license allows them to do, act like douchebags.

If there were an NFL 2K7 there's no way they could get away with this. If there were a PGA alternative they couldn't get away with this.

You'll notice they aren't doing this, yet, with the NHL and NBA licenses. You know why? Competition.

Thank GOD they don't have the baseball license though if the 2K series becomes like this we're in shit shape when it comes to sports games.

I don't mind paying for stuff on Marketplace. I didn't get the GR expansion since I never really got into the game but the COD2 downloads were worth every penny to me. Even when the game ended up costing $75 I got my money's worth.

It's this nickel and dime stuff that's so aggrivating. It's not like $60 games were enough of a change for gamers this just makes it worse.

I've been playing the PSU demo a lot and frankly I see a whole lot more value in paying $10 a month for it for the year and not needing/wanting to play anything else than be bled to death one pin prick at a time buying my normal 30-50 games a year.
 
[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']
Thank GOD they don't have the baseball license though if the 2K series becomes like this we're in shit shape when it comes to sports games.[/quote]Are you serious? I would take MVP Baseball 2007, in which every team costs $5, and you have to download them all seperately, instead of that farce of a 360 game 2K made, that would freeze before you could even finish your first game.

And wait, because EA has the PGA license, they are able to make it so that casual gamers, who don't have the time to unlock all the stuff on their own, but still really wanna see everything in the game, can do that? How, exactly, does that make any sense? You're saying if 2K made a golf game, EA wouldn't do this?

I'm just glad nobody has complained about EA milking you for Tiger's red shirt, and how it should have been included into the game in the first place. i'm sure your gameplay experience will be ruined by the lack of his red shirt.
 
You can argue about the merits about unlockable vs. purchases all day long.

I don't have a problem making unlockables paid for content if you're not willing to invest the time to max out your golfer and unlock every single course on the disc. However they should still be accessable free if they're on the disc.

Do you think EA experimenting with all of these unlockables on games they have exlusive licenses to is a coincidence? They paid through the nose to get the NFL/NFLPA license and they fully intend on maximizing that license fee. It's not enough to sell 5 million $60 games every year; $300 freakin' million dollars! They need to add another "revenue stream". Start with what used to be free, unlockable stadiums, classic uniforms which were once clubhouse/skybox bonuses.

Next you'll have paid for leagues. It's never going to stop with EA. Once they get a taste it's never going to end. With Marketplace being structured the way it is don't be surprised to see EA selling their own monthy license for games. It's been done for Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Universe. They're going to go to a "EA Sports" license at some point.

They see the potential and the Madden franchise is big enough for them to try it. Like everything else that people say they won't pay for, people end up paying for it. I remember in the DC days; "No one will pay for a Hunter's License to play PSO." Then on Xbox it became "No one will pay for extra maps, courses, songs." now it's to the point where people are buying horse armor, developers are considering charging for "consumables" it never stops and it's never going to end.

I'm not arguing the merits of one baseball game vs. another but you'll notice where EA chose to start this milking process, games where they have an exclusive license. I have yet to hear about NHL 07 or NBA Live 07 paid for content. They may yet do it but look at where they're starting.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Are you serious? I would take MVP Baseball 2007, in which every team costs $5, and you have to download them all seperately, instead of that farce of a 360 game 2K made, that would freeze before you could even finish your first game. [/QUOTE]


This is very true MVP was leaps and bounds ahead of the 2K series. Good news is that the head guy for MVP has switched over to 2K so it should play much much better in 2k7.

As for paying for extra shit, its all on an individuals wallet. As they put it in a ps3 hub interview though 'we wont hide actual prices behind point systems'. Thats very true, as the point system makes people spend money for something they wouldnt otherwise buy.


Although shirts and codes dont really effect us, new maps greatly do. If you own a game thats on live and you have to buy the new maps, you pretty much buy the new maps or stop playing online.
 
I've been a die hard Tiger fan on the consoles since the first one. I'm passing this year because of the downloadable bullshit (thanks to the OP, otherwise I wouldn't have known about any of this shit). I mean the fucking game (360 version) doesn't even have all that the PS2 and XBox versions have and now they want more money for his red shirt?
So basically the scenario will be:
-Buy the game for 60
-then if you want what the other versions of the game have you have to buy it on the Marketplace
-then my ass hurts because they just fucked me out of about 75.00-85.00 once it's all said and done
 
You can still unlock Sunday Tiger by beating the game. It's not as though you're forced to buy it to get that last character. Looking at it another way, EA is coaxing people into actually playing the full game. There's going to be people who see that there are no "cheats" and think, "I'll just go ahead and play the game through since I don't want to pay to cheat."
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']You can still unlock Sunday Tiger by beating the game. It's not as though you're forced to buy it to get that last character. Looking at it another way, EA is coaxing people into actually playing the full game. There's going to be people who see that there are no "cheats" and think, "I'll just go ahead and play the game through since I don't want to pay to cheat."[/QUOTE]

So does that mean you DON'T have to buy the red shirt??? If I can unlock all of that stuff then it's a different story.
 
Sunday Tiger has always been the final unlockable character after beating Tiger Woods. Judging from the other Live content up, they're all just cheats that are usually unlockable by making your way through the game. Obviously, I should have stated that this is all conjencture on my part, so I apologize for any confusion, but that makes the most sense in this scenario does it not?

Either play through the game legitimately and open up everything or pay to unlock it instead of just inputting a code.

Edit: Ok, I apologize for writing without actually having read that article posted in the OP. I was going by the last few TW games which I was a big fan of. I have a feeling that Gamespot just misstated that the only thing to Sunday Tiger is the red shirt. I have a hard time believing that they're making you pay for a red shirt. Sunday Tiger has always been a maxed out Tiger Woods, so I'll still go under the assumption that in 07 that is still the case. I'll know by Sunday though as I plan to pick the game up then.
 
This is OT, but does anyone who has the game know if you can play multiplayer (not Live multiplayer) with one controller? As in, four guys playing but just passing the controller around.
 
The people defending this - You can't be serious that you think it's okay to charge for cheats?

Do you not remember, just one generation ago when you could use cheats for FREE?
 
Doesn't matter much to me since I don't use cheats, but yeah it is a bit ridiculous to be charging for them. I hope it doesn't sell.
 
[quote name='delirium266']The marketplace had a lot of potential to be a nice tool to bring additional content to gamers for a reasonable price, but I'm completely disguisted by what it has become. Microsoft needs to put their foot down. They need to start regulating what can and cannot be released on the marketplace.[/QUOTE]
The reason I'm guessing that MS doesn't put their foot down on big companies like EA, is the fact that they need EA.

If MS told EA, "You have to stop ripping off your customers" EA would say, "fuck you, were going to the PS3 exclusively."

I'm sure Sony wouldn't mind have EA all to themselves.
 
[quote name='zewone']The reason I'm guessing that MS doesn't put their foot down on big companies like EA, is the fact that they need EA.

If MS told EA, "You have to stop ripping off your customers" EA would say, "fuck you, were going to the PS3 exclusively."

I'm sure Sony wouldn't mind have EA all to themselves.[/QUOTE]

I'm going to assume that if EA can pull this off successfully, you can guarantee Microsoft will be the next to do it. It's a smart move to let EA try it first and let them take all the heat, but if this idea is successful you can guarantee you'll see some kind of car unlock in Forza 2 for 600 points.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Yeah, no big deal, if you're a casual gamer who doesn't have the time, buy the cheats. If you're a hardcore gamer, unlock the stuff the honest way. How does this hurt anyone? Granted, $3 for a red shirt IS pretty stupid though.

In terms of the actual game, I was pretty impressed with the demo. The game is actually challenging this time! I might rent it. I just hope the CAG customization is as good as it is on the current gen consoles, since i'm a sucker for dressing my virtual me into all sorts of snazzy clothes.[/quote]


Sure, it may not be a big deal to charge for cheat codes for a shitty golf game, but what about later down the road when they start charging for substantial things that used to be part of the game?

I don't know about the Battle for Middle Earth 2 deal, but if its true that the shit you "purchase" off the market place is already on the disk, that that is some considerably shady shit.

Its like if Microsoft shipped Vista for $400 however, it wouldn't actually allow you to install anything unless you purchased the permisions for another $50.
 
If anyone has this yet and wants to go a round, hit me up when XBL comes back online.

Hitting a spectator with my driver 300 yards away brought a tear to my eye. It's so amusing to see them fall to the ground.
 
Yeah I'm worried about the future if this actually sells a few :\

Then again I can curse out EA all I want, as can everyone else. I'd be insane to pass on Time Splitters, Rallisport Challenge (if they continue that series, people seem to forget DICE made it) and Burnout.
 
One poster was rigth when he said the player characters can be used online. That skewers the online game completely for a few weeks. Legitimate players are screwed because of some people "who don't have time." I could give a rats ass what you do in your own game, but when it affects my experience, that's an issue. EA has just caused some massive balance problems on their leaderboards.
 
If the content is already on the disc, would using a device such as a Gameshark still work as far as unlocking it? And if so, can we expect some kind of DRM/DMCA hammer droppage on such devices?
Actually, this raises an interesting possibility that instead of releasing a new game every year, EA can just release one sports game and then charge for updated rosters.
Or more likely, they'll end up doing both. huzzah capitalism!
 
[quote name='Brak']Disgusting.[/QUOTE]

I second those thoughts and I like your sig. Halloween is definitely one of my favorite horror series!
 
I think sadly EA can consider just one purchase of the unlockables to be a complete success.
It didnt cost them any more money to program in a couple lines of code to trigger the unlockables all at once. The content was already in there so anyone purchasing it, even if it's just 1 person, has just put cash money in their pocket and its all profit from the 1st purchase.

Don't think any kind of boycott will effect them since they are basically charging for cheat codes that dont cost them any extra time or effort to put in the game.

I imagine pretty soon they wont even be unlockable by playing the game. I expect soon they will charge for every unlockable and no matter how many times you finish the game perfectly you wont unlock jack.
I wish Msoft would put some rule in the marketplace that you can't charge for stuff that is already in the game and you can only charge for content that was created after it hits the market and must be DLed. If they dont put it in check I see a bleak future for unlockables in games.
Disgusting practice if you ask me.

Oh ya, blah blah you dont have to buy it if you dont agree with it blah blah.
They wont care whether or not you buy the unlockable, but they will care if enough of you dont buy the game.
I wonder if everyone who thinks their business practices are crap boycotted buying EA games if they would care or even notice. I think the bf2142 fiasco alone is enough that they cant ignore it. Im sure they lost a lot of loyal customers over that.
But is the evil empire so big that thousands of gamers boycotting all EA products is just a drop in the bucket? Considering how many games they put out, it could add up to a lot. I can think of 5 plus EA published franchises that I am not going to buy anymore thanks to it.
 
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