I've always been anti the online pass stuff. For the type of gamer that I am, all you are doing is stopping me from playing your game and boosting your online player count. And also providing free advertising as people see what you're are playing on all the modern systems and your friends being more likely to buy what you are playing to play with you.
But I'm sure the bean counters have run the numbers and think this is a better solution so who am I to argue.
Yeah, I've made all those same arguments, and it seems like everyone is deaf when EA is doing it. I've also made the "Hollywood doesn't launch all its movies at the same time, so why are all games targeting holiday launches?" argument for over 10 years, but only once EA's Riccitiello says it do the marketing and sales pukes actually think it makes sense.
I'm fine with the concept of publishers trying to make money from used copies of the game. It just doesn't make sense to do it with online because it's cannibalizing a resource the game can't provide on its own: community.
It makes more sense to tie the DLC code to some portion of the game, such as upper difficulty levels, additional missions, or if you're feeling really evil, the end of the game. People who buy the game new get it for free, anyone else borrowing it or buying used can pay for the code.
The problem is, you also have to account for the 50% of users who haven't even connected their console to the internet... so something truly critical (such as the suggestion to hold back the ending) are not really feasible.
