EA Getting Rid Of Online Passes

One of the first publishers to dabble in the idea of an “online pass” – whereby gamers were charted a fee for accessing certain online content if they purchased a title pre-owned – has decided to do away with the program.

EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg has told VentureBeat. “Yes, we’re discontinuing Online Pass. None of our new EA titles will include that feature.”

Interestingly, Reseburg claims the decision is based on consumer feedback. “Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”

“Consumers didn’t like it and were telling us that they didn’t like it,” EA’s head spokesman, Jeff Brown, later told Kotaku in Santa Monica today. “We’re not talking about that layer of people who complain about a lot of stuff like paying for games and all that stuff, god bless them. It became pretty clear that mainstream consumers didn’t like them.”

EA kills its controversial Online Pass program [VentureBeat]