EA Drops Online Pass

Camel · May 16, 2013

EA have announced that they are stopping the use of online passes in new games. Those of us who would rather wait a while and pick up the game second hand can now enjoy full online capability for no extra cost. Although it looks like you will still need the online pass to play games that shipped with it in the past few years.

But does this mean that they'll just bump up the prices of the games to begin with?

Source: BBC News

Soundwave · May 16, 2013

Good news! Hopefully they will also drop Origin.

Eudemon · May 16, 2013

They don't want that 3rd 'Worse Company in America' award I guess. :lol:

Ryzza5 · May 16, 2013

So far so good, Mr New EA CEO

BAk99 · May 16, 2013

Actually amazin. Let's hope they don't charge £80 for a game now.

iLLGT3 · May 17, 2013

I understand it's easy to jump on the EA hate bandwagon especially if you're a Mass Effect fan.

I personally don't mind them having the passes, or not.. Every major title I've bought from EA was bought brand new therefore the pass came with the game. If the passes cut down on torrented console versions of the game, good, I'm happy it worked. I understand the pass was also to cut into the profit of someone buying the game used which that, I understand too.

Plus, since I started playing most of my games on PC, online passes aren't a thing anyway.

BAk99 · May 17, 2013

Screw Mass Effect. You consider EA titles such as Fifa. That EA Online Pass has been put there so that you are forced to buy the game at the cheapest price possible for a new copy garanteeing full profit to EA instead of the gaming stores who were forced to raise their prices on used games. With the policy in place, the gamer is the one to suffer by having to pay out maximum price possible even though the games profit period has finished.

Let's hope they've learned their lesson & start making the right choices like EA used to do. They were such a brilliant publisher if you remember back in the day.

Ryzza5 · May 17, 2013

Back when they used to be called Electronic Arts

Eudemon · May 17, 2013

Weren't they OCEAN before that or did they buy them? I can't remember. :think:

superhyper · May 17, 2013

Good news! Hopefully they will also drop Origin.

This.

BAk99 · May 17, 2013

Weren't they OCEAN before that or did they buy them? I can't remember. :think:

Ocean where originally a dev. company in association with Electronic Arts but owned by Atari (starting with the spectrum) then they bought the rights after Ecco's success on SEGA through a variety of smaller game studios.

Future Cop: LAPD is the pinicle wonder years for me for Electronic Arts. They've never been the same since.

iNotACactus · May 17, 2013

If the passes cut down on torrented console versions of the game, good.

Pirating console versions of games isn't really a thing like it is on PC, and since torrented versions wouldn't be able to go online regardless, it doesn't change the piracy situation.