EA Sports Online Pass, pay to play online
Remember those days when you could just hop online with a game and enjoy it? Well on June 8th with the release of EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, online play won’t be so easy or so free for anything beyond a new copy of the game. The evolution of gaming continues with the new mechanic in the EA Sports Online Pass. If you want to play any EA Sports title online after June 8th, you’ll have to buy it new or otherwise have to dish out $10 to activate the online component.
How do I unlock my Online Pass access code?
When you connect online with your new EA SPORTS game for the first time, you’ll be prompted to confirm your EA account details. If you don’t already have an EA account, you’ll be asked to accept our Online Terms and Conditions and then create an account. After confirming or creating your account, a screen will appear that enables you to redeem your Online Pass code.
If you haven’t already enabled Online Pass, when you try to access an online feature in your game, you will be prompted to enter your code. If you do not have a code, you may purchase Online Pass access from within the game. If you’re not sure online is for you, you can enjoy a temporary free trial before purchasing access.
If you buy an EA Sports title used or rent one, you better hope that someone forgot to use the code to unlock online play or you’ll simply have to enjoy the game offline. This is of course an increased effort to encourage people to buy new and get away from the used games market where the developer and publisher get nada. There’s an FAQ in the link above with more details on how to activate the Online Pass and what it means moving forward.
You knew this day was coming as the times get tougher and the development costs increase. What say you?
May 11th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Deac I’m telling you, I will not own or play Madden 11 this year. I will guarentee it. I will win the bet and you will owe me.
This is horrible from EA. HORRIBLE! SpaceGhost probably thinks this is beautiful.
Gamers better smarten up.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:27 am
you won’t win anything with that secret Gamertag you have!
May 11th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Yeah probably not. They can suck it.
May 11th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Good way to punish those of us that have more than one 360 in their household also… right? Can’t buy one copy and be able to play online on 2 consoles without shelling out an extra $10 for #2… booooooo! It already pi$$es me off when I need to buy add-ons (i.e. over-priced map packs) for two 360s… then add into that wanting to play with some friends that might only have a PS3…. that’s it – I’m done!
May 11th, 2010 at 8:52 am
hmmmm… rest of my comment got cut-off… trying again. (Geek searches thru closet for old Radio Shack Pong system)
May 11th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I am glad I have already started to stay away from EA games. Will make my boycott that much easier. Only game so far I was planning to get was the next NHL game, but I think I will pass now. I have 2 soon to be 3 360s in my house and if I cannot play my game online with any of my 360s then whats the point. Personally I think this is a horrible move but then again its EA so I shouldn’t be surprised. Ridiculous.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:01 am
I think what bothers me the most about ideas like this, is that WE THE PEOPLE don’t realize how much power we have. This, for lack of a better word, SUCKS! Everyone knows it does. But, there are those that just want to game (as they have been doing) and enjoy their passion (which is understandable)so they are gonna pay it, when in fact if no one paid for this $hit they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of people like this. This type of greed is really getting ridiculous in this industry, and this mentality is a world wide bane to our everyday existence.
/end rant
May 11th, 2010 at 11:27 am
@Dangerdoll. You are right on. We the people do have the power to address this with our wallets by not buying into what they are doing. Unfortunately too many people will run out and still buy it which will ruin it for the rest of us.
May 11th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Excuse me, but F U C K you EA.
May 12th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
What I think is absolutely ridiculous is EA’s logic behind this. They’ve said that it is because the second hand sale does not benefit them like the direct sale does, so they cut access to the secondary sale. Of course, the truth in the matter is, regardless if I were to keep the game for the longevity of the server life or if I were to sell it and somebody else would play to the end of server life, the server would have been used to it’s EOL. One would also have to assume that the secondary sale would take place within the lifespan of the server, which grows shorter every year that EA closes servers for the previous year’s game. I strongly believe that EA is being anti-competitive with secondary sales of their games and I cannot believe that this will affect even users of XBL, who already pay a premium to access online gaming.
May 13th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
wow, this sucks! i always used to buy 3-4 year old Madden/NBA games and get easy an 1000gs for $3 lol. now it looks like no more online achievements.. any bets on an increase in those from here on out? lmao
May 20th, 2010 at 8:33 am
[...] has begun. Remember the uproar about the EA Sports Online Pass which outlined their intent to make you pay to play their sports titles online if you buy the games [...]
May 21st, 2010 at 5:26 am
What EA are ignoring is that people sell used games so they can afford new ones. When this half-cocked idea happens used games will become worthless, therefore those needed to sell to buy new won’t have the money to buy new. Everyone loses, including the morons at EA.
Look at it this way, if car sellers decided to put codes on new cars so only the person buying a new car could fill up with petrol, do you think the car business would still be around. Of course not.
Boy, there is some laughably stupid idea coming from game publishers these days. This industry is beginning to stink.
May 21st, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Put it this way, you buy a game for £50, you might reasonably think you own it. But when you come to selling it, you find you don’t have the right to sell the entire product you bought, so you never in fact owned the entire game.
July 25th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
We already pay a subscription (xbox gold) to play online why would any one o
Want to pay another lot of people to play online? Stuff that! I’ll just buy a different game!
December 16th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Right… Great Job EA… really.
I don’t mind paying for XBL or Map-packs even some DLC.
But paying more money to play online if I’ve gone cheap and got 2nd hand
or rented for longer than 7 days (No Late Fee crap)
Online Pass. Lol. Jog On.
Also NFS Hot Pursuit… got to pay for more cars?! Naw… they should have been included.
Bloody Arse holes man… Ain’t touching another FIFA… back to PROEV just when I got into FIFA… fools…
December 16th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
you have to pay for more cars in Hot Pursuit?