EA Sports to Used Game Buyers: Pay Up
By Jared Newman | Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 9:03 am
Electronic Arts is getting ever more desperate to cripple the used video game industry, requiring a one-time access code to play its sports games online.
Starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, players will need an “Online Pass” to enjoy the game over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network. These passes are included with new copies of the game, but used buyers will have to purchase another pass for $10. All EA Sports games for Xbox 360 and PS3 will require an online pass from now on.
Sony did something similar with SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3, including a voucher for online play in the retail packaging and charging $20 for replacement vouchers. Sony said it was only trying to stop piracy, but EA doesn’t hide its disdain for used game sales. “We want to reserve EA SPORTS online services for people who pay EA to access them,” the company said in an Online Pass FAQ page.
EA previously experimented with innocuous ways to encourage new games sales. New buyers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, for example, received free bonus content that used buyers had to purchase separately. Online Pass promises bonus features for new game buyers as well, but it takes the idea one giant leap further by withholding a core part of the game.
The writing’s on the wall: Gradually, publishers will begin locking up more of what’s on the game disc until there’s no advantage to buying used. It started with bonus content, now it’s multiplayer, and pretty soon it’ll be the whole game. EA’s justification for Online Pass — that it deserves to be paid — really applies to all game development, so you’re kidding yourself if you think the trend stops at online sports games. Want to play the final chapter of your second-hand first-person shooter? There’s an access code for that.
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May 12th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
[…] EA Sports to Used Game Buyers: Pay Up (technologizer.com) backtweets_url='http://www.thetechscoop.net/2010/05/12/buying-used-games-stay-away-from-ea/'; dtsv.dtse_post_5333_permalink = 'http://www.thetechscoop.net/2010/05/12/buying-used-games-stay-away-from-ea/'; dtsv.dtse_post_5333_title = 'Buying used games? Stay away from EA!'; […]
May 13th, 2010 at 4:54 am
[…] die den Spieleentwickler durch den Verkauf von gebrauchten Spiele entgehen entwickelt scheinbar derzeit EA (Electronic Arts). Die Rede ist von einer “Pay Wall“: Demnach möchte man für Online-Games beim Käufer […]
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:35 am
[…] This strikes me as odd given the scorn publishers pile on the used game business, and the limitations they try to impose on it. Maybe disrupting the old business model would bring too many repercussions, or maybe the demand […]
August 24th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
[…] 24, 2010 To discourage people from buying used video games, THQ and EA Sports recently started locking away features, such as multiplayer, and requiring used game buyers to pay extra. Realizing that this practice […]
August 25th, 2010 at 8:40 am
[…] Aron / August 25, 2010 / No Comment This seems somewhat bizarre to me, just because I do not see the rational behind THQ and EA Sports aggressive campaign at trying to discourage people from buying used video games. In an attempt to ‘cripple’ the used video game industry, both THQ and EA Sports have started locking away features. […]
March 30th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
[…] isn’t a new idea. Electronic Arts and THQ started requiring online passes for some of their games last year. But Warner will […]
April 18th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
[…] year, a few video diversion publishers started withholding online multiplayer from used video games unless buyers paid $10 for an activation code. we figured that was only a […]
July 15th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
[…] trend began with Electronic Arts, which started requiring “Online Passes” for some of its games last year. THQ quickly followed with its own $10 voucher program, and […]