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EA discontinues the unpopular Online Pass system

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Electronic Arts‘ controversial Online Pass system is being discontinued for future games.

Online passes have become commonplace; if you buy a secondhand game like Battlefield 3 or Need for Speed Most Wanted, to access online features you need to pay for a pass, which is often ten or fifteen dollars. This is a way for game companies to benefit from the huge secondhand market, but is very unpopular with gamers.

When you buy games from companies like Ubisoft, Activision or Electronic Arts, an Online Pass is included as a unique code included with it. But this means you can’t use online features if you play your game on a different console, or account.

In an interview with VentureBeat, EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseberg said, ‘many players didn’t respond to the format… we’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.’

Whatever you think of the ethics of Online Passes, removing them will certainly make gaming more simple. Being able to play a game for the first time without entering long codes and waiting for confirmation is great news.

Electronic Arts didn’t make itself very popular when it introduced the Online Pass, but perhaps gamers will be able to forgive now it is listening to their feedback.

[Source: VentureBeat]

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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