EA are scrapping online passes

[Dark Drakan]

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An EA executive confirmed recently that none of the new titles by EA are going to need an online pass and they are scrapping the format. EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg had the following to say about it:

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''Yes we're discontinuing Online Pass & none of our new titles will include that feature. Initially they were launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, however many players didn't respond to the format. We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward."​

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However EA arent the only company to have used online passes as both Ubisoft and Sony have also used them for titles including Far Cry 3 and Starhawk so could they be coming to an end for everyone?​

 

[Martius]

I feel they may come up with some worse instead.

 

[Winterfrost]

Has Hell froze over?

 

[m100t8s]

I feel they may come up with some worse instead.

I was about to say that.

 

[Chancey289]

EA getting rid of something that should have never existed in the first place?!. Maybe they are learning after being reminded for a second time everyone hates them. Then I think about and it hits me about what their next step might be.

Digital distribution.

 

[LeoXCV]

Who needs online passes... When you have DRM instead.

 

[Meg]

On one hand, it is possible the EA is finally getting some sense and realizing they need to do something to make people hate them less.....buuuuuut on the other hand, they are only trying to make themselves look good while they brew something else.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

online pass? thats old...behold: Game pASS

what does it do ea?

EA: it allows your console to read the disc!
ignorantgamer: i like game pass because before i never registered that my console was reading the disc. but with game pass after i entered code the console gives a beep soumd indicating disc is g8ing to be read.

i am conciius gamer

 

[Dark Drakan]

I think its a good move personally & them scrapping the DRM for the next Sims game & making it fully playable offline single player is at least a step in the right direction. There are others that are using online passes still & introducing registering/reward style systems that are a pain to use (Ubisoft with Uplay which ive never got to work). Im not a hater of EA, I disagree with some of their choices & the DRM for Sim City was a stupid idea & I didnt like the online pass idea but from a business standpoint I understood why they brought it in. I wouldnt have voted them worst company as there are far worse out there developer wise. Maybe the company that has made the most silly decisions but worst? I wouldnt have said so.

They were losing money each year with second hand game sales as well as pumping millions into developers to develop games for them (be they sequels or funding new IP's). Either they recouped costs from the preowned market & got something back from their sales or cut funding to developers. Also with most EA games featuring vast stat tracking for the online portion which costs a lot to keep running which they included in the price of the game for no extra cost they were again losing out on money when people were getting the games cheap second hand & having access to the same features. So to recoup something as little as that £5 to give people who got the games cheap that same access rather than adding the extra cost ontop of the retail price doesnt seem as bad in the grand scheme of things. When other companies (Activision) simply opted to create a Prime version that you had to pay extra for ontop of the retail price to gain access to the full multiplayer stats systems.

Overall I think they are much better than they once were and seemingly have started to listen at least a little to consumers (finally), though see how long it continues. Most companies are starting to head down the microtransactions road now it seems & I believe this is the unfortunate future for most games next gen.

 

[Martius]

EA allready shut down servers of some game with online passes. It was just money grab for them.

 

[Dark Drakan]

EA allready shut down servers of some game with online passes. It was just money grab for them.

They normally do this when the player numbers drop so low that it isn't worth keeping them up and most companies do it.

EA statement on closing game servers: The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level -- fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles -- where it's no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage.

Those gamers that were late to the party should get an online pass refund then. ​

An idea they have juggled around too but instead have now scrapped them.

 

[Martius]

They normally do this when the player numbers drop so low that it isn't worth keeping them up and most companies do it.

But EA came up with online passes because of "cost of keeping servers for longer time is too high" as their solution for that cost.

 

[Dark Drakan]

But EA came up with online passes because of "cost of keeping servers for longer time is too high" as their solution for that cost.

Not entirely correct, they came up with them to get something back for second hand sales (as retailers get the cash for that not the developers/publishers). As if you buy the games new the pass comes with it, you dont pay extra on top of it just the regular price it would be without the pass in stores new.

Purchase game at retail price & no extra cost to play online, purchase in store for half that price or less & pay £5 extra towards getting full online features. Just means each party involved gets a little something back for the game sales rather than just the retailer.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

But Dark Drakan, these people who pay for pass, when the servers reach 1% and EA thinks "We will stop".

Why should the consumer care about the companies concern?

Did the company care for the consumers concern when they forced online pass on them?

See my point?

 

[Dark Drakan]

But Dark Drakan, these people who pay for pass, when the servers reach 1% and EA thinks "We will stop".

Why should the consumer care about the companies concern?

Did the company care for the consumers concern when they forced online pass on them?

See my point?

The consumer didnt care enough for the game to purchase it new & they dont normally end servers until after some years (or people playing the game drops massively). If you have waited until then, then you clearly dont mind about playing online anyway as there wont be many people on there anyway so you wont have to buy a pass if you arent bothered about it. I mean if I purchased a 4/5 year old game now from another publisher I wouldnt expect the game to be brimming with activity unless its a classic (Counter Strike etc). Companies have to makea profit, if they dont then they cant fund new games and studios, they are businesses afterall.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

I don't mind when servers are shut down. But i think if i buy a online pass then servers must be up at least 5 years.


Especially a game where online multiplayer is important. Such as Fifa, Cod, Basketball etc.

 

[Martius]

I don't mind when servers are shut down. But i think if i buy a online pass then servers must be up at least 5 years.


Especially a game where online multiplayer is important. Such as Fifa, Cod, Basketball etc.

I think games published by EA have something like "we can shut down servers for game after 3-6 months" in their EULA.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I don't mind when servers are shut down. But i think if i buy a online pass then servers must be up at least 5 years.


Especially a game where online multiplayer is important. Such as Fifa, Cod, Basketball etc.

But those games have new releases each year that need servers too, they do keep them online for a while after though. Longer than I would keep them running if I was running those servers as the strain would be huge over 2 titles. If you want to get the most out of a game then buy it from release to give you the most time with it. If you cant afford it new then buy it 8 months down the line or something around there, as its not going to get any cheaper after 4 years as its price after 1 year. So if your interested there is no excuse to be waiting so long to purchase a game then moaning they have closed servers soon as you get it.

I guess I can sympathise with their reasons because what we do on the forums isnt that different. I mean we have a subscriber option you can pay for, for extra features & a donation option to help us cover the server costs. We also used to have more forums than we do now, however the members online had dropped so much it was costing more to keep them running & they were using bandwidth we could have used elsewhere so had to close them. There were still people on there & using them but we had to regretfully close them to save money as they were costing more than they were generating, its not that different of a situation.

I think games published by EA have something like "we can shut down servers for game after 3-6 months" in their EULA.

A lot of companies have silly little disclaimers that most dont read & these little terms like that, just helps cover their asses from getting sued. Also covers them from closing little MMO games that flop early in their life (even the free ones) as they cost a lot to keep running & they dont want to be tied into keeping them online leeching cash that could be better used on another title.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

Not like their early game releases is that much different.

If i am not wrong a old fifa edition was released as next year release on a certain console or handheld.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Not like their early game releases is that much different.

If i am not wrong a old fifa edition was released as next year release on a certain console or handheld.

Handheld development is done by different studios than the main console releases, they are normally ports done by someone else & run on different servers.