EA introduces one-time-use 'Online Pass' for sports games

by JC Fletcher on May 10th 2010 6:05PM

EA just announced the next step of its "Project Ten Dollar" initiative, one that's likely to affect a lot of people much more deeply than the allure of some extra DLC. Starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, out June 8, EA Sports games for PS3 and Xbox 360 will include a title-specific "Online Pass" that enables access to "online services, features, and bonus content." If the code has already been redeemed (i.e. if you bought the game used) additional Online Passes will be available for (you guessed it!) ten dollars. Each game will include a seven-day free trial.

The online services under the Online Pass vary by game, but an EA rep told us they can include basic online multiplayer, as well as group/league features, roster and playbook updates, downloads of user-created content (like Photo Game Faces) and tournament support.

We'd think GameStop would be most upset about this plan, given that it's basically the destination for trade-ins of last year's sports games toward the new model, but CEO Dan DeMatteo offers a cheerful quote in the announcement. "GameStop is excited to partner with such a forward-thinking publisher as Electronic Arts," DeMatteo said. "This relationship allows us to capitalize on our investments to market and sell downloadable content online, as well as through our network of stores worldwide."

Source

Tags: dan-dematteo, ea, ea-sports, Electronic-Arts, gamestop, Microsoft, online-pass, project-ten-dollar, tiger-woods-11, tiger-woods-pga-tour-11, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (146)

I'm surprised Gamestop hasn't lowered the price of all their used games so that when you buy it used, and buy the special online code on PSN of XBL it's still 5 dollars cheaper.

Really? You're surprised that Gamestop hasn't lowered it's prices?

It's Gamestop. They raise prices, not lower them.

Gamestop is a business, of course they will raise prices of products. Every business does.

I don't have an undying hate for Gamestop, I like my local one. Cool people work there, and I don't mind saving 5 dollars on a used game as long as it looks good, I'm ok with it.

But to have them do this whole "Hey, buy the game used and you only get part of it, buy it new and you get the whole thing!" kind of sucks for the people who don't mind buying new. Sure it's only 5 dollars, but hey, I don't mind saving a little bit of money here and there.

"kind of sucks for the people who don't mind buying new."

And by new, I meant used.

I have never even thought of putting the words "cool people" in the same sentence when talking about Gamestop employees, at least not when talking about the Gamestops near me.

But anyways, I am not at all interested in EA sports games, so this does not affect me one bit.

Yeah, I'm not big on sports game either, but what they did for Mass Effect 2 kind of sucks.

And you must live near crappy Gamestops. The one I live by has actual gamers that work there.

I never said they didn't know anything about games. Quite the opposite actually. I just said they weren't, in my opinion, what would be considered "cool people". I am definitely a nerd at heart, but I still have a life and don't just sit in my house all day and never see the light of day like said employees at my Gamestops.

Probably gonna get downvoted for this...

Well, I have a few friends who work there, they do indeed have lives.

Me on the other hand, I don't do much BUT play video games, Haha.

Where I live they only know about 360 stuff and laugh at you for buying PS3 or Wii games. Hell the day I went to go pick up Fragile they sat there making fun of me and told me to get my money back because it's a Wii game.

Are you serious? That's really shitty. I'm sorry you have shitty employees and can't talk about games with them.

"But anyways, I am not at all interested in EA sports games, so this does not affect me one bit."

Yet.

You know if this is successful in getting even a small number of people to buy new instead of used that not only will EA start doing it in their non-Sports games but other companies will start incorporating such a feature as well.

Can I get an 'Oh, snap!'?

Snapple?

All I can say is wow..

Nice! I can stay Silver member on XBL and play EA games online! [Beep] you Microsoft!

I doubt that, Ballistic. It's more likely that Gold members who don't have the code won't be able to play online, and Silver members, even with the code, won't be able to either.

No.
No you can't.

You still require an Xbox Live Gold Subscription to play EA Sports games online.

thanks to EA the Live fee looks even more ridiculous than it already is.

So if you have more than one account on a PS3 and you buy one of these games, you can only play online with one account?

I guess the code is tied to a single PSN/XBL account.

Cue the angry parents that have to pay more so both children can play fifa online.

If you read the FAQ it's tied toa single account and to a console. So everyone on the console gets it, but the person who registered it totheir account can travel with it.

Now this is getting ridiculous. So now you cant take the game to play at a friends house or anything. This just gets dumber and dumber! I think I may be done with EA in general now.

@Rahabib On 360 you can since you can take your gamertag over there on a memory card/USB stick. But if you are taking it to a baddy's place, are you really going to play online?

It's an interesting tactic for EA to try to recoup resale dollars. I wouldn't mind a scheme like this so long as it forces GameStop to lower their resale price by an equivalent amount. Then all that would happen is that the profits shift back to the developers, and there would be no net difference in payments for the consumer.

Games like Lego Rock Band have pioneered a little bit in this area by selling $10 (or similar) codes that allow you to import content to other games in the series. As most players probably do own another Rock Band, the developers can possibly make some profit on resale that they would otherwise never make. But EA's model actually encourages resold games to be priced lower, whereas the "import code" does not.

"This won't hurt gamestop because if you think about it."

You don't know anything about business if you think charging 25-40% less for a product won't hurt Gamestop.

Considering they mark up the used games 2-300% a $10 loss won't hurt.

Basic math figuring a $10 loss on millions of games, regardless of what % they mark up. They are a publicly traded company looking at hundreds of millions in lost revenue.

Money whores

No, that's Activision at the moment.

Everything EA does now is acceptable.

That's how it works!

I tought they were the same company for a minute there

Oh boy. This is going to go over quite well. Like a fart in church.

so if i'm reading this right, you will have to pay $10 to play online with a 2nd account on the same console also, guess that will upset alot of people that are sharing a console single but have their own account on psn/live.

You can link more than 1 account to your EA Online ID. I had to link my PSN to my EA ID to even take part in the online community stuff for Dragon Age. I'm also pretty sure that people had to do the same thing with Mass Effect 2. Basically everything will be link to their site, including DLC. My Dragon Age DLC is actually listed on the Dragon Age site that I have access to as well.

Wrong. The console gets the rights too, just like Xbox 360 DRM.

Obviously you didn't read at all.

I can take this 2 ways
1. Used games will be cheaper for single player
2. Used games will sell for much less so it discourages people buying new ones(as they don't make enough money by selling the old one)

I buy my games new anyway and play with one account so this doesn't bother me.

It's cool that the people who buy used and contribute nothing to the people who should get money have to pony up and pay if they want the complete experience.

There is a used market for everything, sometimes a lot of good games com out at once and you need to buy a few of them used, you wouldn't buy it anyway so they still would lose money, and the used game profits allow retailers to keep new games at slightly cheaper prices.

wow. ea just make it so if you buy the game used all you get is a demo. and if you buy it new you get a code to unlock the full game

I buy my games new nowadays anyways, so I'm not really bothered by it. That doesn't mean I don't think this is going a bit too far.

Taking key-features out of a game to me is a hassle, even if I buy the game new. i don't want to fool around with keycodes and all that garbage.

I recently bought The Saboteur, and that came with a code for some extra stuff. That's all fine and dandy, cause I don't feel like that was a necessity for the game, but what's next? The ending of your game is on a DLC card? What if I lose or want to change my gamertag, I'm f**ked sideways!

Hell no!

With EA you can go online to their website and link/de-link new IDs to your EA account. So, say I switch from being PSN Elvenmonk to Aquacharger. I would just need to login to my EA account and switch it over. Or, when I play a game online as Aqua I'd login with my PSN account and it'd get synced up that way.

With an Xbox, I'm already paying for "online access" to my games features, now I'm getting hit again? Can I get a Bu77sh1t?

Don't buy it used? Problem solved, no extra cost!

Nice! I can stay Silver member and be able to play online! [Beep] you Microsoft!

I Highly doubt that even with a code im sure you will need Gold.

But that's the problem, I have always paid for Live but a lot of my games I get from gamefly on release day for $43 brand new but are considered used, unless Amazon has a good preorder bunus. Occasionally the extras that are supposed to be in the case are not there when it is shipped. I shouldnt have to dish out an additional $10 to play my games on line...I already pay for that function with Live.

On top of that My Brother and I share games. When I'm not playing he will use it since we live together. Games are expensive enough without having to pay $10 for what boils down to an additional license to play what's already on the disc.

I say send a blast message to all your friends on Live and PSN, Shit send one to Major Nelson Make them aware of what's coming and how we feel about it. Let's stop this thing before more game companies get this Idea.

@KingOfGods, The console gets the license too, so you only need to pay $10 if you are sharing the disc on different consoles.

@KingOfGods

What's a "preorder bunus"?

I want one!

No the code isn't console specific. It is attached to your gamertag via your EA account. Just like the VIP pass in Bad Company 2 and those Dr pepper codes. The Dr pepper codes were redeemed on Dr pepper's website and unlocked via gamertag not Console. The VIP code is only Valid for the gamertag that redeems it.

So if you have 2 people at home that share the game, that's $70 plus for the game just to allow 2 people access to Online play and features

to me this seems like a fine idea. stopping used game sales is a viable cause. my question is will it be psn account specific, console specific, or what? this seems like it would also ruin like lending games to friends, or playing on multiple psn accounts.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 221 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 155 comments
Blizzard taking Valve to court over 'DOTA' trademark 110 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments

EA introduces one-time-use 'Online Pass' for sports games

Reader Comments (146)

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:12PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:37PM Rikerbot said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:11PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:12PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:16PM Dawg605 said

Posted: May 10th 2010 8:13PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 10th 2010 9:14PM Dawg605 said

Posted: May 10th 2010 9:35PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 10th 2010 9:44PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: May 10th 2010 9:50PM Dougtastic said

Posted: May 11th 2010 11:27AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:14PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:03PM WolfForager said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:15PM Spike Spiegel Humble Bounty Hun said

Posted: May 10th 2010 8:10PM Ballistic H said

Posted: May 10th 2010 8:28PM Trojan said

Posted: May 11th 2010 11:48AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: May 11th 2010 1:50PM MrAhh said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:16PM RKN said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:23PM lyons said

Posted: May 11th 2010 12:23AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: May 11th 2010 11:38AM Rahabib said

Posted: May 11th 2010 5:42PM ashleydb said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 7:01AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:47AM SailorJohn said

Posted: May 11th 2010 12:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:16PM Dropeti said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:17PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:18PM Dropeti said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:16PM Double J said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:17PM lyons said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:46PM Griefy said

Posted: May 11th 2010 5:57PM ashleydb said

Posted: May 12th 2010 9:52AM Snaek said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:19PM Cheesus Crust said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:25PM Jae Brav said

Posted: May 10th 2010 7:47PM MrAlex said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:26PM theydidntnameme said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:26PM MystileArmor said

Posted: May 10th 2010 9:50PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:31PM agenttg009 said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:43PM Dalrint said

Posted: May 10th 2010 8:09PM Ballistic H said

Posted: May 10th 2010 10:24PM KingOfGods said

Posted: May 11th 2010 6:00PM ashleydb said

Posted: May 11th 2010 7:33PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: May 11th 2010 8:20PM KingOfGods said

Posted: May 10th 2010 6:33PM Tristan88888888 said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Dark Side 'Cause It Looks Cool: The Failings of Moral Choice in Games

Frictional teases a new Amnesia project, possibly set in China

GameStop sees majority of digital sales from cash; won't pursue used PC game sales

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days