EA Sports to Charge to Play Used Games Online

May 11, 2010 By Geoff Duncan

EA Sports is introducing an Online Pass that will let buyers of used games play online...for $10.

Many avid gamers know that used games can be one of the true bargains of the console world. Maybe you weren’t excited enough about a title to give it a try at full retail price, but at a significant discounts, you might be willing to buy a used game to taste a franchise and see if its anything you like. Well, starting in June, EA Sports is going to start looking for money from folks who buy used games: starting with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, sports fans will have to buy a $10 Online Pass directly from Electronic Arts if they want to tap into online play capabilities of used games.

When players take their EA Sports game online fir the first time, they’ll be prompted for an Online Pass access code. For buyers who have the full retail version of the game, that code will be on the back of the manual included with the game. For folks who don’t have the full retail packaging—i.e., anyone who bought a used game—they’ll be able to purchase a new Online Pass from EA for $10.

If the game’s original buyer did not activate their Online Pass and transfers the original code to a new owner, the original Online Pass code will work for the new owner. The Online Pass validations are stored with user’s Xbox 360 Gamer Tag or PlayStation 3 persona, so if a user’s console is damaged or stolen they won’t lose their Online Passes so long as they can log into their accounts. One Online Pass will provide access for multiple users logged into the console where the Online Pass was first activated however: players do not need to purchase separate online passes for every user on their consoles.

If used game buyers don’t want to purchase an Online Pass, they’ll still be able to use all the offline content of a used game, so it’s not as if entire titles will become disabled. But with EA Sports titles, online and multiplayer online play are one of the games’ chief attractions.

EA Sports is remarkably clear about why it’s instituting these online passes for used games: it’s all about money. When a player buys a users game, EA is not seeing any revenue from the sale—never mind that they received income from the original sale of the game. “We actually view the second sale market as an opportunity to develop a direct relationship with our consumers, and with Online Pass everyone has access to the same premium online services and content regardless of how and where you buy the game,” wrote EA Sports senior VP Andrew Wilson in the service’s FAQ. “We want to reserve EA Sports online services for people who pay EA to access them.”

Showing 6 comments

Court ruling could kill used game business at 3:52pm 14th October 2010 [...] EA has already begun to institute a charge for gamers that buy their copies used and wish to play online, a tactic that many other companies are considering mimicking, but a new court ruling may make that [...]
Sony quer cobrar aluguel por partidas on-line | F5 at 5:06pm 25th August 2010 [...] a EA anunciou, em maio deste ano, que iria permitir que jogos usados fossem utilizados em partidas online somente [...]
Sony Considers Charging for Used Games that Play Online at 2:16pm 24th August 2010 [...] is considering a charge for online gamers that purchased their games second hand.When EA first announced that it would begin to charge $10 for gamers that bought their titles used and attempted to play [...]
dissapointed at 6:02am 10th August 2010 Perhaps if they used the income derived from Online Pass fees to improve the stability of their EA network making it it the fastest and most stable network anywhere available it would be worth it. If you want to charge a premium for online access then you must provide a premium product. Right now that product is less then mediocre in terms of stability and the amount of disconnects one must endure. Take the Fight Night franchise. FN4 (a timing sensitive agme) is plaqued by disconnects and lagging during online play which directly impacts the outcome of the fight. I rented Tiger Woods 2011 and found it just a repackaging of previous versions and having to relearn the controls and pay for online access..I promptly returned it the next day.
Swifty at 11:53am 28th June 2010 I have to say I completely agree with the post above, not only are games seriously over priced considering most of them can be completed in a couple of days, but now you wont be able to buy a pre-owned game without having to cough up extra cash, what EA dont realise the person that owned the Pre-owned game probably bought it new, so they made the money the need to make off that game, but now they are trying to make more money off a game more than once, it's a rip off and nothing more, I will never buy any EA game that requires any kind of code to play online, The greedy just keep getting Greedier, I hope it backfires and sales of Tiger Woods 2011 and horrible, what they dont realise is that for every person that buys a pre-owned game, thats another potential customer for DLC, they will lose that market if they continue with this stupidity.
EA SUCKS ASS at 6:16pm 12th May 2010 EA HAS LOST THERE MINDS. ANYONE STUPID ENUFF TO PAY THE $10 OR EVEN BUY ANOTHER EA GAME MUST BE DRUNK OR STONED!! I LOVED EVERYTHING EA BUT NOW WILL I EVER BUY ANOTHER EA PRODUCT??? HELL NO AND IM SURE IM NOT THE ONLY SAIN PERSON THAT FEELS THIS WAY, SCREW YOU EA!!!