August 2, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
Following in the footsteps of rival Activision’s Call of Duty: Elite, EA has announced their own paid subscription service for its own cash cows. Set to launch with Madden NFL 2012 on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network at the end of the month, EA Sports Season Ticket will offer a variety of year-long “premium benefits” for some of EA’s most popular franchises, including FIFA Soccer, NHL, NCAA Football, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
For $24.99, swindled gamers get access to the aforementioned sports titles via download a full three days before retail release (but then have to go out and buy the actual games once the street dates arrive), 20% discounts on downloadable content (so you’d have to buy $125 worth of overpriced DLC just to make your subscription fee back before you truly reap any monetary savings), premium web content (which non-subscribers can pay for anyway), and membership recognition. EA Sports Season Ticket’s official site, which has some of the lamest advertising videos, touts in terms of membership recognition, “be noticed with an exclusive badge.” Well, holy crap. Sign me up asap! I was gonna light $25 on fire and watch the ensuing 14 seconds of smoky entertainment, but EA Sports Season Ticket might be a slightly better way to throw money away.
