Ok, so I finally went to purchase the Battlefield 2142 expansion pack, Northern Strike, from the newly renovated/released EA Store – figuring I had already purchased BF2142 from the EA Store back when it was first released. This time however when I went to check out I was greeted with an extra purchase option, for $5.99 I could also purchase The Extended Download Service. Strange I thought, what could this be? Well upon further reading I find to my utter amazement and disgust that the EA Store, or rather Digital River, now only gives you access to the game you’ve purchased for six months. The Extended Download Service option increases this time period to two years. What?
Now I know it’s only $6, but the whole concept is just asinine to me and wreaks of greed and the word that rhythms with ham. The fact I have to pay for the right to keep the software I paid for available to me in case I want to download it again after six months is simply mind boggling. If I was getting a hard copy with my purchase then sure, that’s cool, but I’m not. I’m essentially helping them pay for their storage and bandwidth costs. I’m assuming the game I’m downloading is on their server in one place and downloaded by everyone who buys it. I mean, do I have a special “Aaron Butler” folder that has copies of the games I purchased? I don’t think so, if I do, they need a better back end service.
To make matters worse it seems incredibly difficult to locate a way to actually contact a living person for customer service, and apparently even when you can they aren’t getting back to people who are asking questions about this [Evil Avatar Forums]. Fairly ironic for a service that boasts “We aim to deliver the best buying experience on the Internet.”
I’m glad I only purchased 2142 from the EA Store. I wont be purchasing anything else from them until they change this ridiculous policy.
While it’s not perfect EA and Digital River could learn a few lessons in digital distribution from Steam.