Well, it looks like as of right now, EA is charging for demos. On the Xbox One Marketplace you can “purchase” the FIFA 14 and the EA Sports UFC demos each for $4.99.
Hopefully this is just a quick holiday weekend glitch for the demos and they are not actually intending on doing this permanently. The demos were originally free and still are for those who downloaded them before the “price increase”. EA has been known to have a little “Scrooge McDuck” side by requiring players to have online passes to play games, having large amounts of DLC, including a lot of in-app purchases, and being voted the “Worst Company in America” twice. This won’t really help the gamers get on their side as demos have always been traditionally free and purchasing a small portion of a full length game separately just seems unnecessary and unappealing.
Well, if this was a glitch, it was pretty fortunate that it was $4.99 and not a $59.99 price tag on a demo. Maybe this was a secret test run? No, probably not. Hopefully people don’t buy this demo and give an encouraging “okay” step for priced demos in this generation. One thing is for sure, EA sure is funny and has a sense of humor for the Fourth of July (not April fool’s), or they are out of their minds.