EA Has scrapped its Online Pass Policy

[SenEDDtor Missile]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/27/electronic-arts-building-microtransactions-into-all-future-games No Online Passes, but microtransactions in all future games!!! Hooray!

Pay $20 for the ability to save, or buy this $0.99 pack of 5 save states! And buy it in the next 10 minutes and we'll throw in a free pizza for an extra $5 dollars! - microtransactions according to Neo EA.

[Chaos Warp]

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

 

 

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

Fuck, should have known there was gonna be a catch............

[Chronozoah]

This is a business aiming to make money. Also, it's EA.

 

Of course there's a catch.

 

I will, however, make the case that this is not inherently a bad thing. As it stands, microtransactions are entirely optional, whereas the nature of their online passes locked out major elements of the game unless a new copy or alternate pass was purchased. In order to access all of the content in-game, additional expenditure was necessary. More microtransactions could suck, yes, but at least it isn't necessarily necessary to play the game, though I guess it ultimately remains to be seen how EA implement them from here on out.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Heinous Creature

[Badnik Mechanic]

EA has now announced it intends to completely abolish all past online passes.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-30-ea-makes-some-online-pass-content-free-on-xbox-marketplace

 

This has had a very interesting side effect. Several games have an online pass which includes some rather good DLC or extra features. As a result, several online passes have been made free on XBLA (no sign of PSN price changes just yet) and as a side effect, you can now get some free DLC.

 

Someone over at neogaf put together this list.

 

Alice: Madness Returns - American McGee's Alice The first game in the Alice series, access it through the disc (was 800msp)

Bad Company 2 VIP (was 800msp)

Bulletstorm Online Pass (was 800msp)

Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner (was 1200msp)

Dragon Age 2: The Black Emporium (was 800msp)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass (was 800msp)

Mass Effect 2: Cerberus Network (was 1200msp)

Medal of Honor Online Pass (was 800msp)

SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED™ ONLINE PASS (was 800msp)

Skate 3: Skate Share Pack (was 800msp)

 

For some reason, I think that the game The Saboteur would also be included with this as that also came with some kind of online pass for a mini game that was on the disk.

 

EA has also confirmed that several sports titles will also be getting content unlocked from this change.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Not been able to check this myself yet but...

 

EA Online passes/DLC tied content are being made free on PSN today.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

And what about future EA games on PS3/360? Will they have online passes or not? I know a few EA Sports games that are coming to PS3/360 this year.

[Badnik Mechanic]

They've said they're scrapping them, so I imagine they won't.

 

As for PS4ONe (yeah I need to think up a better... thing for that) No idea.