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

Posted by Soulskill on from the gee-thanks dept.

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.'"

11 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Competitive gaming and premium content by Decollete · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope this doesn't end up like those "free-to-play" online games where players can buy "premium content" for in-game advantage

    1. Re:Competitive gaming and premium content by QuantumLeaper · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think so, it sounds like if you buy a New game you get a 'serial' number for DLC but if you buy a Used games, you have to buy the DLC for $10. It more to kill the used game market since they don't get a cut from it.

  2. cheating the laws by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yay... a yet another attempt to work around the First Sale rules. All they're doing is relabeling part of the package, so instead it's an "add-on" now.

    By "title updates" they really mean bug-fix patches. In other words, this "Online Pass" thingy is strictly negative.

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    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    1. Re:cheating the laws by Zaphod+The+42nd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. Anybody who buys the game from a vendor, first, gets the code and forever has access to the "service" for free. Anybody who then purchases that title legitimately from that first owner cannot access the same content, content WHICH IS ON THE DISC, not some DLC he "could" download, but actual data and code that is on the physical copy he purchased and is within the game for which the user licence is sold and has been transferred. This is 100% EA locking out people who buy used, and forcing them to pay up to them directly, or to go buy from a vendor and not used. I can't disagree with you more.

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      GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
    2. Re:cheating the laws by quantumplacet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Anybody who then purchases that title legitimately from that first owner cannot access the same content, content WHICH IS ON THE DISC

      really, the servers that host online multiplayer games are on the disc? that's an impressive disc.

    3. Re:cheating the laws by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      By "title updates" they really mean bug-fix patches. In other words, this "Online Pass" thingy is strictly negative.

      This will also give EA the option of "discontinuing" this "super duper premium content" that was "soooo hot, and toooo cool" to even put on the game disk. They'll kill off this $10 DLC when the next sequel of their game hits the shelves.

  3. Re:Hurray, you get to pay for updates by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also- jesus christ.
    They're retiring games less than a year old.

    In some countries consumer laws would still put electronic good under warranty for that long.

  4. This should be titled by masterwit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This article should be titled:

    EA games does yet another thing to piss me off...

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    We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
  5. Re:They're all evil. by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They'll attribute any lost sales to piracy whether you pirate or not.

  6. I read this another way.... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The $10 voucher allows you access to stuff that 5 years ago, before DLC existed, would have been included on the original game CD.

    Sorry, but as an old man in my mid-40s with a quarter century of gaming history, modern gaming and most modern games are *CRAP*!!!

    Games used to be about entertainment that lasted a lot longer than 6 hours, was actually challenging and was fun when you got a few friends round to LAN party with you.

    Now it's all about leeching more money out of parents by encouraging kids to always buy some piece of DLC that they can brag about to their friends because they're the first "on the block" to get it - this is why morons queue at midnight for the latest game release, Harry Potter book or overpriced Apple gadget.

    Still, I've more than enough old games to play through again, load mods into or play via an emulator, as well as few nice free/Open Source games... the rest of you rabid fanbois have brought this on yourselves by buying the crap in the first place, and you're all welcome to it.

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    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  7. Textures and sound effects by northernfrights · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not to worry, textures and sound effects will always be a free download if you bought the game new.