EA Introduces "Online Pass" To Get In On Used Games Market

EA Sports has unveiled a new feature that they hope will help them get a piece of the lucrative used games market: the Online Pass. Each of their new titles will come with a one-time code that allows access to "premium" content and features. Players who buy the games used can get the same content, but will need to pay $10 for the privilege. "According to EA, the content can include anything from title updates and downloads to features like online leagues — and even online gameplay and multiplayer modes. ... EA will offer 10-day trials of Pass content so that users can see what they would be getting. So far, EA seems to be limiting the premium add-on experiment to its sports portfolio. ... The company has apparently gained the support of retailer GameStop, which has been watching with a close eye efforts on the part of publishers to discourage its thriving used games business. According to the retailer, encouraging premium content add-ons still benefits GameStop, since it sells PlayStation Network and Microsoft Points cards. It praised EA's Online Pass as 'forward-thinking.'"

Not very forward thinking really

[Redlemons]

With online distribution (like steam) they could stop second hand sales altogether, and as a bonus you don't need a silo for your discs. Pretty awesome in my opinion.

Re:To bring the book industry into the 21st centur

[quantumplacet]

umm, he released The Green Mile serialized, and serialized novels have been around for a few hundred years. The book you're referring to is The Plant, but the experiment there was not serialization, it was some weird bastardization of the honor system where 75% of readers had to pay for him to keep writing.

Project Ten Dollar

[Clovis42]

This is just EA's "Project Ten Dollar" and it is not limited to just he sports games. It has already been featured in Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect 2. Both games included content that you got for free with a code that came with the game, but you had to pay $10 to get if you bought it used.

Re:They're all evil.

[Ant P.]

EA _has_ changed. 15-20 years ago, they were one of the biggest game developers. People would put down $50 a piece all the time because they made games worth that much.

Today they're just a games industry MPAA imitation. And they deserve to go under just as much.

Re:cheating the laws

[Zaphod The 42nd]

The multiplayer maps and game modes are on the disc. If you could host your own local server, then I'd be fine with this. But you can't; the only way you can access multiplayer, a feature which is advertised as part of the game, part of the package you're getting when you buy it, is if you buy it first.

Re:I read this another way....

[Totenglocke]

this is why morons queue at midnight for the latest game release, Harry Potter book or overpriced Apple gadget.

You're right about two of the three, but you're wrong about Harry Potter release parties - people go to those because they want to start reading the book ASAP because they love the story and can't wait to see what comes next (you also typically get a discount if you pre-ordered). I know what their reasoning is because I went to a couple midnight releases of it and talked to the people there - I've yet to ever hear anyone brag about being the first to have a book; I've only heard people who were excited to read a new book and were glad to get it the minute it went on sale so they could stay up all night reading it.

Still, I've more than enough old games to play through again, load mods into or play via an emulator

Me too - that's why I have no problem boycotting games with DRM, because out of all the games I've played, I still have stacks that I never got around to beating.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:EA Sports

[flitty]

Exactly. EA's project $10 worked great! However, this might be the bridge too far. Taking the multiplayer out of a used SPORTS GAME would sort of like taking the Multiplayer out of Team Fortress 2, where the majority of people will be spending their time. I don't think EA would be as dumb as to remove all multiplayer from sports games, but to add things like Season support and playoffs would ADD value to people who bought new (or bought the addon). We'll see what they finally pull out of the main game when it's played used.

Re:Mass Effect 2

[Rutefoot]

The Sims is such an excellent example of corporate greed at work. The amount of money one could potentially spend on the series is staggering. Let's say someone buys the Sims 1 and all 7 expansion packs, you're looking at $300-$400. Then the Sims 2 comes out and stripped back to its base game so they can release another 8 expansion packs (we're at around $800 at this point). They realize that there is a huge demand for extra objects such as furniture and clothing and people are willing to pay for them without the added content an expansion pack normally provides so they end up releasing 'stuff packs', 10 in total (Priced cheaper, but still raising our total to around $1000). During the process of releasing stuff packs they realize they can make even MORE money by licencing out the packs and the H&M and Ikea packs are born.

That brings us to the Sims 3. Again, stripped back to its most basic elements. Hell, some elements that have been around since the very first game have even been REMOVED, such as the hot tub. Realizing that objects that are made by third parties are incredibly popular (and that some people are even willing to pay for them), they take advantage by 1) Making it difficult for third parties to create their own objects and 2) Introducing their own library of downloadable objects (for a fee of course).

That library was up and online at least a month prior to the game being released, selling extra objects for a game that hadn't even been completed yet. It's one thing to release updates after a game is released, but to purposely leave things out with the intention of selling them as 'extras' is the definition of greed.

Already we have an expansion pack released with another on its way plus one 'stuff pack'. Add that to the total, plus add on some pay per download objects and you are easily over $1000.

To date, the Sims 3 has sold over 5.9 Million copies. If you add up all the expansion packs, they have sold over 100 million copies. They have made billions on this franchise and yet they still are trying to nickel and dime people.

Re:cheating the laws

[harl]

But it doesn't hurt the pirates. It only hurts the used people. You can get any DLC you want on BT.

Re:Competitive gaming and premium content

[poetmatt]

This is a better solution than any sort of draconian DRM scheme.

Are you disregarding that the console itself IS drm?

This isn't better, it's just a different flavor of DRM and just as bad.

This means you can't even take the game over to your friends house to play online together (2v2).

Again, there are situations that this affects other than just the used game market.