Ben-DutkaAt some point, I guess we just won't be allowed to play video games unless we're connected online.
Electronic Arts has just confirmed via Twitter that the upcoming Need for Speed will require an Internet connection to play.
One fan asked if it would be a requirement and the answer was yes, but the responder added that the suite of benefits we will enjoy is "nice:"
Being connected will let other players become part of the "narrative experience," and we know developer Ghost Games plans to build on the seamless online mode found in Need for Speed: Rivals called AllDrive. Right now, there's no knowing what you'll be able to do in the upcoming "full reboot" if you're not connected online. Chances are, very little.
Need For Speed is set to launch later this year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Related Game(s): Need for Speed
You're kidding me EA.
OMFG, this sounds just blows. Hope this is not just the beginning.
It can stay the beginning if gamers continue to throw a stink about it. As soon as we stop caring and these titles start slipping through you better believe it'll get much worse. MS may even try this stunt, again, with their next Xbox.
They always talk "benefits" in vagueness but never mention all the downsides that come with this.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/29/2015 11:10:26 AM
It's likely this online connection requires a registered game account to your PSN ID. It's a way of clamping down on the resell market but of course those facts are never talked about.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/29/2015 11:10:01 AM
The people who care enough about this to raise a stink are such a statistically irrelevant portion of the overall market that EA doesn't have to give a shit about them, and they know that, which is why they do stuff like this in the first place.
Did you not see the uproar over Sim City, Diablo III, and the Xbox One (the roaring round of applause Sony got on stage when they announced they weren't following MS's online only lead)? I wouldn't be so sure about your position Bio. People also threw a stink over AC Unity's online connections. Ben went as far as announcing the game didn't deserve the score it received as a result of those connections. Ubisoft listened and here we have AC Syndicate dialed back in connectivity after the uproar.
History suggests we can make a difference.
As to whether or not NFS has a vocal enough and large enough market to make their voice be heard remains to be seen. But as far as I can tell, once outcry news starts making it's waves on gaming sites with also message boards populating with tons of hate messages the publishers have to then respond. Social media is hugely powerful these days.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/29/2015 12:05:42 PM
E3, Diablo and Sim City all have one thing in common, in that they're much more tailored towards people who are really into gaming, as compared to something like NFS, Madden, Assassin's Creed, GTA etc. Those more casual titles are bought and played by millions and millions of people who don't even know what E3 is, let alone care who says what there.
People who are into games enough that they read gaming websites and watch E3 streams and have opinions about loot drop rates in Diablo III always seem to forget that they're a very small minority that is shrinking every day. For the most part the industry no longer caters to that crowd because they don't have to, and they don't want to because that crowd is more demanding. The bigger the industry gets, the easier it is to ignore those people.
So I agree that in some instances, with some games, publishers do care more about perception because of who they're marketing to. Need for Speed is not such a franchise. EA knows that, which is why even though they eventually caved and gave SimCity an offline mode over a year after release, they're still content to make something like NFS always-online, because the percentage of people who will even care is so, so much smaller than something like SimCity.
Ummm, Tem, Sony left out the part about Digital downloads requiring 24 hr connection to play them. Just as scummy.
guess I wont be buying this one
GOOOOO Mountaineers?!! Nice pic bro. Is that Steve Slaton? Whatever happened to him?
These guys just can't learn. In enough time this will be overturned.
Do not want…
I guess they figure if you're still buying Need for Speed 22 years later, you're so hooked you'll fall for anything. Personally I stopped caring about EA published racing games when they broke up Criterion to better milk their franchises, and I realized we'll never get a Burnout Paradise 2.
Then you sort of missed out on a few good racing games.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 5/29/2015 12:50:35 PM
Not really. I've played games that came out after Paradise, and own Hot Pursuit on Steam and Most Wanted on Origin and played a lot of both, but EA's racing games have been downhill since Paradise, which is truly the GOAT racer.
LOL @ burnout paradise being the best racer
Burnout Paradise is easily the best arcade racer ever made. I love the true open world feel, and while no arcade racer even pretends to follow the laws of physics, Paradise had its own car physics that were consistent in a way few if any other arcade racers ever are. The drop in-drop out multiplayer was a great way to hang out with friends doing crazy shit for hours at a time.
have to agree on paradise city being the best arcade racer of at the very least last gen.Everything was so well made,including the online which is still pretty active today.
Yeah I can get a group of 5-6 guys together for Paradise pretty much anytime. It's great for older players with kids and wives and such because if I have to step away for a minute to help my son with something, nobody has to wait around on me, they can just go about the challenges or just goofing off or road raging each other.
Totally agree that Burnout Paradise was/is the best arcade racer of all time. But sadly, I highly doubt that a true sequel will ever be released as the two co-founders of Criterion have since left Criterion and took a few key people with them that worked on BP, before that most of the employees at Criterion were shifted over to Ghost Games. Then early last year (after NFS: Rivals came out), Ghost Games laid off a bunch of people, who knows how many BP people left and never went back. Despite all that, there are still key BP people who remain at Criterion and Ghost Games. My only hope is that EA will allow, with those key people who remain, a sequel of BP, for it's tenth anniversary (fall/winter 2017/2018).
A question for all those who are being critical..
Do you have an internet connection to your console and play online games?
I would love to hear some responses.
It's more than that. It's the very real possibility that your serialized game disc becomes locked down to your PSN account.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/29/2015 12:07:12 PM
Whether or not you have an internet connection is not the issue, though I would point out that even in very modern places like the US and Canada, broadband penetration is still hovering around 80%. For millions of Canadians and Americans, broadband access is a real issue.
That said, even if you have broadband, even stable internet connections have hiccups, service interruptions, and other random downtimes. Having your game session cut off in the middle of something because your internet crapped out for five seconds is dumb, and there's no logical reason for it. It's simply a draconian method of digital rights management.
Max, what about when psn is down and I'm in the mood for Nfs? Granted, I could play something else or do something else but why should I have to settle for something else to what I desire?
I am not trying to defend EA here, but I was asking about the internet connection because of statistic Sony shared.
Here in the United States, Sony has commented that 90% of the PS4's are connected to the internet.
Do you think EA doesn't notice this?
My ISP is not the most reliable. Lots of drops and unscheduled maintenance. So games that require a connection to run, well, they're a crapshoot for me!
I'll probably get this game regardless of the online requirements, NFS fan since 2! Plus, if my racing crew decides this is the next field of battle, I gotta be there! LOL
My internet times out once in awhile, and psn downtime, as mentioned before will be a pain. Even if most of us have internet, how many can you say have high speed, reliable internet? The u.s specifically is no where near ready to make internet a priority for everyone.
Let's not forget what temjin said too. Unless you agreed with Microsoft's vision, this can be a start of something big, and not favorable for most gamers if how the Xbox one's fate early on is any indication.
It's not so much that EA has noticed the ratio of connected consoles, because that's exactly how Microsoft saw it. It's all about experimenting and how the gamers will respond imo. As said before, this is a different type of game they haven't tried yet, even knowing the mess that was SimCity. If the gamers respond greatly, do you think they will bother sticking with this plan, even with the fact that most are connected? How many people are connected, vs. sales/reputation.. what's more important to them?
And yeah, sometimes I just want to be alone driving in the city without worrying about that possibility of kids ramming me. They better have an option for this.
Last edited by daus26 on 5/30/2015 6:36:15 AM
Max, even if 90% of PS4s in the US are connected, that doesn't really mean anything. For starters, even if we are the single biggest market we are still just one of hundreds of countries where these consoles are sold. If the US only has 90% connection rates for these consoles, imagine what that percentage must be in places like India, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia, etc. All those countries have much lower broadband penetration than the US, but account for over 3 BILLION people. Almost half the entire world population.
You'd think EA would notice THAT.
Hey fellow Pontiac fan! I do have an internet connection, but I live out in the sticks and all I can get is satellite internet. It works great most of the time, but it doesn't have the horsepower to play online games, and I have a limited amount of data. This news is very disappointing to me. I mean what if the PSN is down? Will we not even be able to boot up Need for Speed?? Or in my case if it's just cloudy and raining lol.
I never asked for this.
NFS. EA need to do the following. 1. Bring back the customization of all cars. That was what people enjoyed making it their own. 2. Keep the cops and boss battles to take car ownership. This can be done for both cops and other racers. 3.Bring back physics similar to the original most wanted on Ps2? That game had the best arcade physics handling of any game I played ever.
EA is at it again eh… They're going to keep pushing this draconian DRM until people stop caring and let it slide. I for one refuse to buy any game that wont work unless you're constantly connected to the internet.
This won't flush
like a morning after that chinese buffet, it's like you saw it coming but you prayed it wouldn't hurt as much as it did
Every time there's an uproar over something like this it's like their first thought is "we'll let it die down and maybe next time it won't be such a problem." It would be hilarious if it weren't so bloody infuriating. They also avoid using the words DRM, as if anyone with a single working neuron couldn't figure out what it is.
I'm not a big fan of everything being online but I wouldn't have that big an issue with it if they could guarantee that their servers will work.
EDIT: Also I miss the good old days of split screen racing…are there any split screen racers out now?
Last edited by matt99 on 5/29/2015 4:45:41 PM
And people say gaming is better than ever, if the game is going to both SP and MP, why do i need to be online to play the single player?
EA, i dont care about those benefits of being online.
That's a no deal for me. I just hope enough people are aware of this before they buy it.
at first i was like you've got to be kidding me they haven't worked before why would they work now, but this is EA we are talking about. but yeah wow great really looking forward to this now yeah nah. i don't think that i'll be getting this game any time soon. this is going to end well said no on ever.
happy gaming
Last edited by Rachet_JC_FTW on 5/30/2015 8:02:49 AM
I don't understand why so many get so upset by an online requirement. The machine – being it a PC or console – is always connected to the network anyway?
An online requirement has never bothered me one bit as long as it's not intrusive (ie other players join without me wanting to, messages being posted places on the internet without my acceptance and so forth).
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/30/2015 2:03:47 PM
Well it work sooo well for the SimCity reboot!!! God when will they ever learn!!