EA is Eliminating the Online Pass from all Their Existing Titles, ‘Doing Away With it Altogether’

It looks like EA is getting very serious about their axing of the Online Pass program, as they have confirmed to us that this now extends to previous titles in their catalog. - PSLS

[knifefight]

I wonder if some other kind of crap will jump in and take its place?

[doctorstrange]

I can think of One thing

[Utalkin2me]

I see what One thing you did there....

[Sovereign59]

Yeah, much as I've always hated them, I'd rather have online passes continue functioning as they have than see Xbox One's used game situation come to fruition. At least then I'd still be able to loan games to friends and borrow others from them and we'd be able to play through the singleplayer campaigns without paying some fee to anyone.
It just seems as though the online pass has evolved into a far more sinister monster. These are dark times.

[loulou]

to be replaced with what i wonder?

or, is it that companies are no longer looking to maximise their profit??

i think that the former should be taken into consideration. and until e3, everyone should be worried by drm on every yet to be released console.

disagree away kids

[Larry L]

I've yet to hear a decent reasoning as to why people are so adamantly against "online passes". I'm a firm believe that if you put in effort to make and distribute a product, you should get paid for it. It's called capitalism......I know alot of people are against it these days, but......you know?.......history?.......

If you buy a game new online passes don't affect you. Want to save some money? Wait for a price drop, you still get the online pass whether you pay $60 for a game day 1 or $10 in the Wal-Mart bargain bin. And you can still let friends borrow games or rent. Don't lie and say you can't. They can play single player all they want, and when they want to play the game online every single game with an online pass has free trials. Usually 3 days, some are 7 days.

IMO if you are the kind of gamer who would rather give 100% of the profit for selling a game to GameStop instead of the developers and publishers getting their fair share of that profit for actually making the game you want just to save 5 god damn dollars off the retail price of a game, you should have to buy that online pass for $10 just as a "F You". I'm sorry, but that's how I feel. Support the industry, not GameStop.

The used game market should only be for games that are no longer availible new at retail, or for games that still are availible new at retail, the publisher should get a piece of that profit from GameStop along with the data of what game it was being sold so the developer also gets their credit with the publisher.

Until the used game market works like that, online passes are the only answer. Limiting the single player should be illegal as far as I'm concerned, and we may end up finding out that it is indeed illegal if MS goes through with the single player DRM thing for physical games....that just stinks of being illegal. But when it comes to online, that costs publishers/developers money to keep servers running and all that (unless it's a p2p game), which is why I'm not against online passes.

You want to buy used just to save $5? Fine....but now pay us $10 if you want to play online....how's that grab you?

Buy New!! Support the Gaming Industry!!

[plaZeHD]

Clever clap clap clap.

[ChiaPet]

haha I Oneder what you're talking about...

but in all seriousness, the alleged DRM of XOne is not cause for EA to hange their online pass program. EA is a multiplat developer and has just as much business with Microsoft as they do with PLayStation and the PC gaming community

[pixelsword]

I'm NOT saying that this will happen, but if you will indulge my conspiratorial leanings for a moment...

If EA goes through them for exclusives and to design their multi-platform games on the X1 (ensuring the best product on the X1 and giving excuses for any game that doesn't measure up on the PS4 when it should) then all EA has to do is get proceeds from the Microsoft and make the best version on the X1 to maximize their cut.

AGAIN, I'm not saying that it will happen, but since the PS4 is more powerful, PLUS now very easy to design for, then if a bunch of poor ports happen next gen (and there's no real excuse for poor ports this gen, either) then maybe there's something shady going on.

[rainslacker]

Ironically enough pixel, they'll point to those poor ports getting traded in and sold as used, and people not buying new copies as to reasons why they were right to want to restrict the used game market. Then they'll show how much better new sales were on "The other system", to further validate their claims.

They create the problem to solve it. It's all self-fulfilling.

[Blaze929]

soooooooooooooooo to everyone who bought an online pass...

[Perjoss]

*buys game on steam full price*

game goes on sale the next day down to half price.

life sucks, get a helmet.

[Blaze929]

I think a sale, is very different from a paid requirement gone null and void.

[TrendyGamers]

Glad to see they extended this to older titles.

[-Mika-]

Ya, this was really nice of them. They did not have to do this but watch some users find a way to bad mouth EA.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

Nope, Microsoft pretty much saved gamers the time for that.

[Kingthrash360]

mika..lol
....nevermind...smh

I just wonder if you wonder why you have one bubble.....smh

[Majin-vegeta]

Is this just the online pass??Or also the DLC VIP pass from BFBC2??

@Below i was jipped on my VIP pass when i bought it.So this is good for me now i can finally get my full BFBC2 game.

[GameCents]

VIP pass included. Just downloaded mine. Yay.

Also, watch people backpedal and start liking this once it applies to ps3 as well. This site's users are hypocrites.

[scotchmouth]

Are you inadvertantly labeling yourself a hyprocrite?

[rainslacker]

Nope, I think this action by EA is not altruistic, and I won't backpedal on my views of DRM because of this. In fact, this is the only reason they're doing it. They think people will be like "Oh cool, no more online passes" and blindly accept all the other crap coming that's much worse.

It's nice we don't have to worry about them any more for this gen, but this gen is at a close. As far as online goes, EA is known to drop server support, so the issue may be moot to them now.

[TrendyGamers]

The VIP Pass is free on XBL now, so it looks to include that as well.

[Nicholasgliss]

I never bought into that crap anyway.

[Wedge19]

Good news, though kinda sucks for anyone that recently paid for the online pass for an EA game.

[nick309]

I suppose fans will demand some sort of refund soon.

[MasterCornholio]

The only EA game that i have with Multiplayer is Dead Space 2 which i bought new but i never used the code because the multiplayer is crap. But its good to see that this will extend to other titles as well.

[ginsunuva]

lololol.... because used-game fees are coming to replace it.

[Master-H]

Thank god , i was going to buy Hot Pursuit's online pass because of the cool cops and racers chases :>

[ger2396]

Is this for ps3 too?

[Kingthrash360]

nope...only if they announce used game fees....EA is trying to be as sly as Cooper. smh

[doctorstrange]

Yup, it happened to XBL in the morning, but they've said it's coming to PSN too

[Sharius]

“heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether.”

[rainslacker]

LOL. The first thing I thought of when MS said they will restrict used games was, "So that's why EA dropped their online pass program". Guess it was too much to hope that EA was actually becoming customer oriented.

[WhatchaTalkinBout]

theres a hidden agenda behind this, we all know EA is sneaky like this... so you can pretty much assume what its going to be..its getting more and more clear as the days get closer to e3.. its funny i see no mention of the ps3 online passes at all nor where they at sony's ps4 presser , but at microsofts ,there in bed together both are behind this BS used games deal... hmmm i think ppl/gamers can put 2 and 2 together..id say boycott both companies let them feel the wrath of gamers everywhere.. show we are in control of what we want to do not them...

[Parapraxis]

Now do the same UBISOFT and ACTIVISION.

[gamegenieny]

The one thing i think everyone seems to have overlooked is that its in EA's interest to let everyone play the game now. This is because of MICROTRANSACTIONS.

Why try to make money on online passes when there is a bigger pile of money to be made on microtransactions. THIS i think, is the real reason the online pass is history. Can't make money on microtransactions if people are locked out of the games because of an online pass.

[rainslacker]

Maybe, but you can't deny the coincidence of this coming out a week before the MS reveal. The MS solution is just a huge step up in terms of restriction to the online pass, so it's no wonder why they'd be OK with dropping a redundant "feature".

[gamegenieny]

Oh i totally agree that it has alot to do with the xbone and the drm that it involves. I'm just stating that microtransactions are the future for EA and thats a big part of the decision also. Personally i'm waiting to see what ps4 does with drm.

At this point with this drm crap i'm heading to become a pc only gamer. And i've been on consoles for over 30 years now.....

[greatcrusader44]

Nice

[aLiEnViSiToR]

in other words EA is like: Gamers are smarter now and this will not work anymore therefor we must think of something better to get our hands on their money *greedy laughter*

[TheOrion]

EA, you don't fool us with this move under the guise of being nice. We all know the XB One used game policy is the real reason you dropped this..

[batbatz]

I wonder why, well they dont need it anymore with the XBox One DRM