EA Drops online passes

[Stoney Mason]

Online Passes – the controversial attempt by many publishers to encourage new game sales by locking online-centric content for used copies – has become engrained in gaming culture over the last several years. But according to a report on VentureBeat, one major company is doing away with them.

Electronic Arts – the mega-publisher behind a litany of games including Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, Dead Space, Mass Effect and more – will be “discontinuing” its Online Pass initiative. In a statement provided to VentureBeat, EA’s John Reseburg said that “none of our new EA titles will include that feature.”

Reseburg admitted that Online Passes just don’t seem to be working. “Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”

Many major publishers – including Sony and Ubisoft – continue to use Online Passes, though interestingly, Microsoft never seemed to go down that road. Will EA’s abolishment of this system coerce other publishers to follow suit?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/15/ea-getting-rid-of-online-passes

[mjemirzian]

Who needs online passes when you're moving to a no-used sales Steam model?

[Stoney Mason]

I always thought the online pass was dumb simply because there are better ways to monetize. COD doesn't have an online pass and I truly believe that partially helps fuel their community size along with additional DLC sales.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Who needs online passes when you're moving to a no-used sales Steam model?

DD is the ultimate win-win. All sales are new, and I can wait a year and pay 5 bucks for a game without dealing with a jizz soaked disc.

[chronovore]

Online Passes are really foolish. It lessens the pool of available online players, which makes it less desirable to continue play online.

If you want to encourage better sales of new games, do it through desirable additional content, like holding the true ending of the game hostage.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Who needs online passes when you're moving to a no-used sales Steam model?

DD is the ultimate win-win. All sales are new, and I can wait a year and pay 5 bucks for a game without dealing with a jizz soaked disc.

Agree.

[Don Flamenco]

Who needs online passes when you're moving to a no-used sales Steam model?

DD is the ultimate win-win. All sales are new, and I can wait a year and pay 5 bucks for a game without dealing with a jizz soaked disc.

like this one i found the other day, which looks literally jizz soaked:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221216101134&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

[Trent Dole]

Who needs online passes when you're moving to a no-used sales Steam model?

Ding ding ding!

[Stoney Mason]

Off topic but one of my favorite EA thinks we are dumb moves is when they rebrand studios under the label of something that works for them. Like how there were tons of "bioware" studios a few years back and now there is a DICE LA.

I mean jesus they really think people are that brain-dead.