NFS: Carbon Downloads Your Cash!

EA has released the follow up game to the Need For Speed Launch title with Need for Speed Carbon. With it comes more downloadable content then you can shake a wallet at. EA, with it's nickel and dimeing ways, has followed many other holiday releases and is offering a regular and a collectors edition. The regular edition is the standard $59.99 price you'd expect and the collectors is $69.99 which is in line with what we've seen from other companies. Their collectors edition is actually a bit better in content than what we've seen from others offering three new cars, ten specially tuned cars, six new races, ten exclusive vinyl kits and a bonus DVD with behind the scenes making of footage. So in terms of value for the collectors, 'Carbon' actually brings some real goods to the table which we don't normally see in special/collectors editions.

That's where the value ends though. EA has just released 11 new pieces of content via Xbox Live Marketplace, none of them free. These extra pieces of content will run you 3780 Microsoft Points or ~$50 bucks additional. That brings the total cost of 'Carbon' to $110-$120 depending on which retail edition you already shelled out for. Not unlike Tiger Woods 2007, much of this content can also be unlocked if you play through the entire game, although we don't think it sends a great message to just allow people to buy their way through.

Considering how quickly the DLC came out after the release, this content serves as a quick and easy post-release money maker. It appears that Marketplace is turning into what the most pessimistic people had predicted it would and EA is leading the charge. Is an EA game worth $120 ? Considering how non-next gen their games typically are, how many bugs usually plague them, and their online gaming experience is some of the worst in the industry, who's paying $120 for an EA game? Not I said the older gamer!

What's next for EA? 10 Microsoft Points to fill your car up with gas at the 'Carbon' gas station? Much of what EA has released in this first year has been less then stellar to the gamers out there. They're going to need to win back quite a few customers next year and forcing this many "micro payments" doesn't seem like the right move. After all, is $50 really that micro? Hey EA, instead of nickel and dimeing the gamers you still have left as fans, why not head back to the basics and release high quality next gen games that work? That'll bring gamers back and increase your revenue streams without the need for micro payments on downloadable driving gloves.