EA Getting Rid of Online Passes

[Mave]

EA Getting Rid of Online Passes

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?

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/15/ea-getting-rid-of-online-passes?source=forums.themavesite.com

 

[Stybar]

The problem I see here is that I don't really hate online passes. The concept is a logical and brilliant idea to combat piracy. If you don't get the game in a legal way, you don't get the online part. And in some cases, the online part is a major deal (ME3, NFSMW2, Simcity). I think it's a great idea to do that, only the problem is that on paper it seems great, but not everyone has constant availability to the Internet.
In case of ME3, I couldn't finish the game, because I couldn't access the internet for a while (landlord had issues with ISP, long story). Of course, I could play the singleplayer, but that ending without online play is just god-awful. (the ending is awful anyhow, but heck).
MW2 was too easy in singleplayer, finished it in about 10 hours. The multiplayer, which I played a couple of times, is awesome. But again, if the internet is shitty, you're banished to the crappy single player mode.
And let's not forget Simcity. It seemed awesome. You got on a server, you build your city, and you can visit other players' cities, which act as your neighbor! Too bad the server kept fucking shit up, and you couldn't play it without a connection to said crappy server. which made the entire game useless really, since you couldn't play half of the time because of something EA should get straight.

TL;DR: Online passes are a ingenious solution, but in practical terms it's shitty. Good to see they're gone, but I dread the alternative solutions.

 

[Mave]

TL;DR: Online passes are a ingenious solution, but in practical terms it's shitty. Good to see they're gone, but I dread the alternative solutions.

Idd. Though if it were to be a one time activation (like Windows) I wouldn't mind at all.

 

[Fries]

Don't stop bashing them just yet. This just shows they're cutting down superfluous spending. All their games are either sold on consoles (lol online passes never took off for them) or on pc (origin means no need)
+ they caused more technical issues than anything else. Also this means they won't need to spend any money to incorporate such a system into their games.
They're still the money grubbing whore's that they are, it's just that this time they're doing something that happens to be good all-round.