This seems excessively retarded to me as an excuse for forcing online connection.
Glad I've never had an interest in the Need for Speed franchise since that means this doesn't impact me in the slightest. I can just imagine how abused that liked-for-ingame-cash thing is going end up being.
In unrelated news, I found
this page on PC Gamer a while back. "Free Games of the Week". They update the page each week pretty much with various freebies available on the net. I just bookmarked it and check it now and then to see if there's anything worth downloading. One of the games this week is made using GameMaker Studio - pushing it to it's breaking point to pull of a PS1-era styled 3d horror game. "Engine aside, this is an atmospheric horror game that stacks up nicely against the likes of Silent Hill and Overblood, even if it's obviously several shades behind those games on account of it being made by one person"
Guess it shows the power of the non-free version of the GameMaker Studio. The free version locks down a few things and doesn't do 3D at all if I remember correctly. Once I finish Graze on the 7800 I may attempt to port it to PC using the free version of the studio - and depending on how it looks, I might shell out some money for it the next time it goes on a flash sale. But that's likely nothing to think about til the Christmas sale.