EA to discontinue Online Passes

[Haze]

Source: EA Getting Rid Of Online Passes | Kotaku Australia

One of the first publishers to dabble in the idea of an â??online passâ?￾ â?? whereby gamers were charted a fee for accessing certain online content if they purchased a title pre-owned â?? has decided to do away with the program.

EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg has told VentureBeat. â??Yes, weâ??re discontinuing Online Pass. None of our new EA titles will include that feature.â?￾

Interestingly, Reseburg claims the decision is based on consumer feedback. â??Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didnâ??t respond to the format. Weâ??ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.â?￾

To me, this is great news. You?

 

[themarksquared]

Good, it's about time EA. I really do not understand the point behind these online passes except for the fact that it'll not fill up the servers with too many players. I, for one, am happy that EA did something good despite of all the criticisms it has been getting in the past months, most especially them being named as the worst company in America for two consecutive years. Good job EA. Keep it up and you might get our respect back.

 

[dannyboy]

I support the idea. The online passes serve no real purpose. Good move by EA.

 

[RaggaJungle]

Good. I am glad they have came to their senses about this, it really wasn't a well thought out idea at all.

 

[Haze]

So I wonder what will happen to the older games that require Online Passes. Will we still need a online pass for those games or will they be discontinued too?

 

[BlackSolaris]

So I wonder what will happen to the older games that require Online Passes. Will we still need a online pass for those games or will they be discontinued too?

I would say that they will drop the online passes too, Skate 3 being one of the examples i was waiting for something like this to happen.
The problem is that if they drop the online passes, it's obvious they will do something worse, like charging more for DLC.

 

[Pickicool]

While EA decides to stop the Online Pass, other publishers will implement this system.
We are still in the same problem.

I'm still happy, because there are some EA games I could not play lingne. Now I can access the online mode without worry.

 

[Gamer_Fries]

Guys EA was never the worst company ever, give it a break.

On topic, this is actually sounding pretty good and less online passes means for fun for all of us. But one thing I also want to mention is Ubisoft, they have online passes for some of their games like Revelations but nobody seems to call them out.