EA has moment of clarity, finally realizes that Online Pass is bad idea and kills it.

[yourbeliefs]

After years of having overwhelmingly negative responses and being named the worst company in America 2 years in a row, it appears that SOMEONE in EA has finally decided to go against the company motto of "let's extract as much money from our customers as legally possible" and finally removed their stupid Online Pass system.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124061-Electronic-Arts-Kills-the-Online-Pass

 

[king3pj]

After years of having overwhelmingly negative responses and being named the worst company in America 2 years in a row, it appears that SOMEONE in EA has finally decided to go against the company motto of "let's extract as much money from our customers as legally possible" and finally removed their stupid Online Pass system.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124061-Electronic-Arts-Kills-the-Online-Pass

That will be nice for gamefly


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[meStevo]

Replaced by more lucrative things like Season Passes/Ticket IMO.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Replaced by more lucrative things like Season Passes/Ticket IMO.

Yeah but at least those are OPTIONAL and those things never prevented players from accessing various parts of a game.

Hopefully Sony and Ubisoft and other various publishers will follow suit and we can be rid of this awful system forever.

 

[Ramy]

That is great news.

 

[Zookster]

In other words, the ROI numbers weren't adding up...not too mention they have a new cash cow with microtransactions, and you can't get people to pay for microtransactions if they aren't online.

 

[KE4EST]

This is good news, yes lets hope the rest follow.

 

[king3pj]

This is good news, yes lets hope the rest follow.

What other companies do this? I think I had to put in an online pass code for MLB the Show last year which is from Sony San Diego. Besides that I am having trouble thinking of another non-EA game that I have played that required an online pass. I'm sure there are other companies doing this I just can't think of any examples.

I'm glad they are doing away with this. For the most part I'm a single player guy who doesn't buy used games so it doesn't hugely affect me. I am against them restricting use on others though. The most annoying part for me is trying to enter those crazy codes with a controller.

I do go through stretches where I play a lot of multiplayer though. I did play quite a bit of Borderlands 1 and 2 online as well as Gears, Halo, COD, and Battliefield.

 

[dont24]

I recall the latest Saints Row had this. I'm not going to miss it. Pissed me off that I bought FIFA and couldn't play online on my 360. My son used the online pass on his console. I refused to shell out more $$ to EA.

 

[Zookster]

What other companies do this? I think I had to put in an online pass code for MLB the Show last year which is from Sony San Diego. Besides that I am having trouble thinking of another non-EA game that I have played that required an online pass. I'm sure there are other companies doing this I just can't think of any examples.

I'm glad they are doing away with this. For the most part I'm a single player guy who doesn't buy used games so it doesn't hugely affect me. I am against them restricting use on others though. The most annoying part for me is trying to enter those crazy codes with a controller.

I do go through stretches where I play a lot of multiplayer though. I did play quite a bit of Borderlands 1 and 2 online as well as Gears, Halo, COD, and Battliefield.

Quite a few have tried it, but not for every game with an online component they produce. Here's the list according to wikipedia:

Publishers utilizing online passes
505 Games
Activision
D3Publisher
Electronic Arts (2010-2013)
Sony Computer Entertainment
THQ
Ubisoft
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

I just hope this means, too, that EA, and others who follow suit, won't keep tacking on MP modes to games that really shouldn't have it just so they can charge for an online pass to recover $$ lost through the rental/used market.

 

[meStevo]

Online isn't going away either way. Stats and user habits and information = targeted advertising opportunities on a relatively captive audience.

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[yourbeliefs]

Online isn't going away either way. Stats and user habits and information = targeted advertising opportunities on a relatively captive audience.

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Let's hope they at least cut down on selling Ads as "DLC"... as seen here:
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/04/05/nissan-leaf-comes-to-simcity/

 

[meStevo]

Its free, its optional, what's the problem?

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[yourbeliefs]

Its free, its optional, what's the problem?

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That's true, BUT, they're selling it like "Oh, look at this great free DLC" when all it is is just an advertisement. I'm not saying that all ad-based or ad-sponsored free DLC/products is bad, but just present it as it is. I'd rather pay for "legit" DLC as opposed to being flooded with a bunch of useless advertising masquerading as DLC. I have no issue with ads even being in games, just as long as it isn't overly distracting.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Talk about an about face..

EA is retroactively removing their Online Pass fee from a number of their games. Granted most of these games are a few years old, something is better than nothing. More info can be found here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...e-Pass-Fees-For-Select-Xbox-360-Titles-UPDATE

 

[king3pj]

Talk about an about face..

EA is retroactively removing their Online Pass fee from a number of their games. Granted most of these games are a few years old, something is better than nothing. More info can be found here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...e-Pass-Fees-For-Select-Xbox-360-Titles-UPDATE

It's probably too little to late for most people on those games. At this point most people who were looking forward to the online features in those games have probably already played them or moved on. It is nice to see that this won't be in their games going forward though.

 

[meStevo]

Instead it's being replaced by the DRMs in the next consoles.

 

[dont24]

Instead it's being replaced by the DRMs in the next consoles.

Was just going to state the same. There's no way EA listened to their customers. "We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward."
EA is in the business to make money. I'm sure they have something up their sleeve to continue to "fleece" the gaming community. The FIFA gamers out there? Would be interesting to see how many will pass on the 360/PS3 version released in Sept, since it's been announced as a launch title for next gen. So they remove online pass on game titles that probably won't sell great, due to Next Gen releases.

 

[Zookster]

It's probably too little to late for most people on those games. At this point most people who were looking forward to the online features in those games have probably already played them or moved on. It is nice to see that this won't be in their games going forward though.

Those of course being the games for which EA hasn't yet shut down the servers (something they are notorious for), or the game is essentially an SP experience and the "Online Pass" only provided a bit on bonus content.

 

[king3pj]

Looks like this wasn't just because they thought the new consoles would have built in DRM, or if it was they didn't want to look bad by changing their mind. Now Sony and EA who were two of the biggest users of the Online Pass system have both confirmed that they won't use them next gen. Microsoft, to their credit, never did use them on their first party games as far as I know.

Even with all the crazy DRM talk that has happened in the last few months, it looks like we might actually see less restrictions than we had this gen. If EA, "the worst company in America,'' is no longer going to support the online pass system it's going to be hard for other publishers to get away with it with all the recent DRM backlash.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/20/ea-wont-bring-back-online-passes-after-xbox-180

"[There is] no change to our decision to discontinue Online Pass. It is dead," he revealed. "As we said a few weeks ago, none of our new EA titles will include online pass, and we are removing it from existing games as well. Nothing else on today’s news, but did want to be clear that our online pass decision was based on player feedback, and there’s no change."