EA Has scrapped its Online Pass Policy

[Badnik Mechanic]

John Reseburg has just confirmed via email that EA is to scrap it's Online Pass policy effective imediately.

 

No idea if this will also include any previously released games, but from this point on, every EA game will not need an online pass.

 

“Yes, we’re discontinuing Online Pass,” EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg confirmed to GamesBeat in an e-mail. “None of our new EA titles will include that feature.”
 

Well... that was certainly unexpected! Now, I wonder if any other publishers and developers will follow this decision?

 

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial-online-pass-program/

 

 

 

 

Always Online Will Rise from this...

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Good positive step. Now kill Origin.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Good positive step. Now kill Origin.

But if they did that they would have to be nice to nintendo again, and they dont seem to be wanting to do that anytime soon

[The Kid]

This is before they'll announce the increased presence of micro-transactions in all their games.

[Tornado]

That's actually really surprising. The guaranteed revenue stream seems like it would have been something any publisher would go nuts for.

[Stritix]

With The Sims 4 being produced by Maxis, and now EA scrapping its online pass policy... they are certainly improving. I wonder where they will go next?

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Them killing online passes mean crap-all to me while Origin is still active. They'll probably force Origin authorization to all their new titles for all we know.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Ming Ming Suzy

[Chaos Warp]

Good positive step, EA. Now get rid of the rest of your crappy business practices.  

[Barry the Nomad]

Don't kill Origin! That's how I play The Simpsons Tapped Out!

 

But yes, MS points AND EA online passes killed in the same day? 

 

[AzureHedgehog]

If Only the Xbox 360 could do this HO HO HO!

[Autosaver]

Am I the only one frightened of what they will replace this with? It's EA...

[tenchibr]

My Nostradamus Prediction of the Day:

 

EA Announces A New "Here's The Catch" Policy

 

Expect data that will make investors dance in their graves.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I'm not willing to give EA any praise for this. I'll give them praise when they do something positive, not just when they decide to discontinue one of their despicable practices. They've got plenty left.

[Silencer226]

Good positive step. Now kill Origin.

but if they kill Origin i can't play Mass Effect 3 anymore... granted I'm still in the process of beating it (going on a year and a half now )

[Remy]

Pretty weird! I guess EA doesn't want dat new game money anymore?

 

It's pretty goodI guess! not that I ever really had a problem... I think the only EA game I played online since this whole thing started was Most Wanted which I liked enough to buy new anyway.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if the reason they're doing it is to try and capture some of that Valve F2P/hat selling money. Wasn't Battlefield 4 rumoured to have TF2 style crates and keys? MICROTRANSACTIONS HO.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Personally, I don't give a crap about online passes. The publishers have to pay for the servers somehow and they get no money from used sales. So that's understandable.

 

But what I can't stand however is Origin. EA is in full control with Origin. You have to have an Origin account to play their games and demos, and if you are banned from Origin your EA games with Origin will become useless. Also they can add some authorization method that you have to be online to play. Can check if the disc is actually yours and not used.

 

It's no wonder they are dropping online passes. Who needs it when you have Origin?

Edited May 16, 2013 by Ming Ming Suzy

[spinny]

And now Sims 4 will have 50 expansion packs, one each month, all costing £40 each, stuff pack or not.

 

Calling it now. It's EA, for fuck's sake. They wouldn't do this and not introduce a catch.

 

and also

 

Edited May 16, 2013 by Super Spindash

[Tornado]

Personally, I don't give a crap about online passes. The publishers have to pay for the servers somehow and they get no money from used sales. So that's understandable.

 

But that's not true, because what is the financial difference to EA between whether I pay for the game new and use it online for 6 months; or if I pay for the game new, use it for 2 months and give it to someone else who uses it for 4? The server costs were still covered by the initial purchase either way.

[-blank-]

Wow. A rare bout of common sense here.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

But that's not true, because what is the financial difference to EA between whether I pay for the game new and use it online for 6 months; or if I pay for the game new, use it for 2 months and give it to someone else who uses it for 4? The server costs were still covered by the initial purchase either way.

 

Still they get no money from used sales?

 

And sure you can look at it that way and there will be some people definitely in that situation. But let's say I buy MW3 used today. No money goes to Activision yet I get to play on their servers. This is a most likely case for most used games.

[Remy]

Well if you're playing MW3 on a console you're not even playing in anyone's servers... You're playing a peer to peer game with the only hosting cost being whatever the guy who pulled host in the match pays for his internet connection. Most of EAs stuff would be similar and cheaper for them to run than you'd think.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I kinda used MW3 as an example, but it's a bad example because it uses peer-to-peer. I don't know which multiplayer game that uses servers or peer-to-peer (except MW3 since you just told me) so I can't give another example. @.@

[turbojet]

I kinda used MW3 as an example, but it's a bad example because it uses peer-to-peer. I don't know which multiplayer game that uses servers or peer-to-peer (except MW3 since you just told me) so I can't give another example. @.@

It is usually stuff like MMOs.

[Tornado]

Still they get no money from used sales?

 

Neither does any other industry.

 

 

It still has nothing to with "server" costs because those are paid for at the point of original sale until the "servers" are shut down. I can buy a game at the launch date and play it until the servers are shut down a couple years later. Whether or not I personally play that copy of the game that entire time or someone else does after I got bored of it doesn't change how much it costs for that game to play online over that period of time.

[Autosaver]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/27/electronic-arts-building-microtransactions-into-all-future-games

 

 

We are building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way; to get to a higher level, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of business.

 

 

No Online Passes, but microtransactions in all future games!!! Hooray!