EA to stop Online Passes

Braen

Braen

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A victory for used games.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/...-online-passes

From the article_sl said:
Online Passes - the controversial attempt by many publishers to encourage new game sales by locking online-centric content for used copies - has become engrained in gaming culture over the last several years. But according to a report on VentureBeat, one major company is doing away with them.

Electronic Arts - the mega-publisher behind a litany of games including Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, Dead Space, Mass Effect and more - will be "discontinuing" its Online Pass initiative. In a statement provided to VentureBeat, EA's John Reseburg said that "none of our new EA titles will include that feature."

Reseburg admitted that Online Passes just don't seem to be working. "Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn't respond to the format. We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward."

Many major publishers - including Sony and Ubisoft - continue to use Online Passes, though interestingly, Microsoft never seemed to go down that road. Will EA's abolishment of this system coerce other publishers to follow suit?
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meStevo

meStevo

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Season Passes (and Season Ticket, their annual sports preview service) probably bring in a lot more people and hold exponentially more perceived value.
 
meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Nah, all the PR I've seen for it say it's for games going forward.
 
Vorph

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Personally, I thought the Online Pass thing was one of the very few decent ideas they've had in recent years. It was certainly far less onerous than day 1 DLC or microtransactions in the grand scheme of things.
 
Vaclav

Vaclav

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Vorph: While somewhat true especially from the standpoint of friends passing games between them it was pretty sensible (a small fee to the company for the second copy) - it really is a detriment to their sales to companies like Gamefly and Gamestop though. I've got to imagine every time someone bought a game at Gamestop for $5 less used and then found out the online required another $10 leading to it being MORE expensive than new that they saw some degree of complaints, even though it was Gamestop's fault for their ridiculous used pricing.

And with Gamefly it lets people truly try the game via Gamefly so they'll hopefully buy the game instead of just playing "half" or whatever you want to call it. Easier to impress someone with the full package than a partial one. [You know, same reason most games with abilities that scale over the game have their demos actually represent a middle portion of the game ability wise - or have an introduction with extra abilities ala Dragon's Dogma]
 
Cantatus

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Vorph_sl said:
Personally, I thought the Online Pass thing was one of the very few decent ideas they've had in recent years. It was certainly far less onerous than day 1 DLC or microtransactions in the grand scheme of things.
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Yeah, for all the ways they've come up with to get more cash to make up for used-game sales (or piracy), I actually thought this was a good compromise. People could still buy the game used, but they could pay $10 to EA to play online. It sounds great that they aren't going to do this anymore, but you know they're just going to come up with some way to supplant whatever they're losing by discontinuing it, and I doubt it'll be long before we find out what, since I doubt they stopped this without knowing how they could make up for it.
 
Utnayan

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Yeah without a doubt, this has nothing to do with "displeasure from their customers" and everything to do with "We need to make sure we do not add a layer of cost when we micro-transaction the shit out of them in future online games, and make sure everyone has access to those micro-transactions which will be centered around our new and upcoming pay to win system post summer of 2013 - with the sole intention of making more money off Micro-Transactions when people buy those games used, than if we sold $10 online passes no one ever buys"
 
zombiewizardhawk

zombiewizardhawk

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Vaclav_sl said:
Vorph: While somewhat true especially from the standpoint of friends passing games between them it was pretty sensible (a small fee to the company for the second copy) - it really is a detriment to their sales to companies like Gamefly and Gamestop though. I've got to imagine every time someone bought a game at Gamestop for $5 less used and then found out the online required another $10 leading to it being MORE expensive than new that they saw some degree of complaints, even though it was Gamestop's fault for their ridiculous used pricing.

And with Gamefly it lets people truly try the game via Gamefly so they'll hopefully buy the game instead of just playing "half" or whatever you want to call it. Easier to impress someone with the full package than a partial one. [You know, same reason most games with abilities that scale over the game have their demos actually represent a middle portion of the game ability wise - or have an introduction with extra abilities ala Dragon's Dogma]
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Why should Gamestop buy back games from people for $x and sell them for $x+1? Of course they're going to charge a lot of money, especially for the new/popular games when they know they can get away with it. You must be like 13 if you think Gamestop or Gamefly or Blockbuster or anyone else is in it just to help their fellow gamers avoid having to pay for their hobby and not to make as much profit as they possibly can.
 
Vorph

Vorph

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You're right, and that's exactly why online passes were a good thing, as are not-so-online passes, such as Catwoman in Arkham City, etc. GameSpot will never do anything except be a parasite on the industry unless they are forced into it. And as much as I like GameFly, I believe they should have to pay a royalty to the developers on each rental similar to Blockbuster's deal for Hollywood movies. The alternative would be buying special rental licenses which are considerably more expensive than the normal retail price, but I think GameFly probably likes their "Keep It" button too much to choose that over simple royalties.
 
Azrayne

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Utnayan_sl said:
Yeah without a doubt, this has nothing to do with "displeasure from their customers" and everything to do with "We need to make sure we do not add a layer of cost when we micro-transaction the shit out of them in future online games, and make sure everyone has access to those micro-transactions which will be centered around our new and upcoming pay to win system post summer of 2013 - with the sole intention of making more money off Micro-Transactions when people buy those games used, than if we sold $10 online passes no one ever buys"
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Ding ding ding.
 
eXarc

eXarc

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Thank God dude, I can't be the only one who bought something pre-owned or even brand new and lost the fucking online pass voucher and had to pay extra for something I believe should always be one with the game itself. Please don't replace it with something more sinister
frown.png


Also Wizardhawk makes a solid point and things like that are another reason I'm happy this is getting the boot.
 
Vlett

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I think we can agree that Gamestop doesn't resell games for x+1. It's usually x+$15, and $25 for new releases.

We only got hit with the online pass for BF3, and I had planned it as a gift so the extra 10 didn't bother me. (Tried to get a nephew away from CoD)
 
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