Electronic Arts recently announced that it will not be continuing with its online pass program.  The recently announced policy change made a lot of sense when Microsoft initially announced their new features for the Xbox One.  It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks when it comes to next-gen news.  Sony’s announcement of consumer friendly practices for the PS4 and Microsoft’s flip-flopping on their online check-ins and used game policies seemed like it could have thrown game publishers for a loop.  However,  it looks like EA will be sticking to their plan to eliminate the online pass.
The publisher recently confirmed to Polygon that the online pass is officially dead.
“As we said a few weeks ago, none of our new EA titles will include online pass, and we are removing it from existing games as well…there’s no change.”
EA was the first publisher to introduce online passes in their games during the latter part of the current generation. Â The move was mimicked by many publishers in an attempt to recuperate some of the sales “lost” by used game purchasers.
Hopefully most publishers will follow EA out of this practice in the same way that they followed them in. Â With the Xbox One’s policies haven recently been announced to see major changes in response to consumer backlash and competitive pressure, we’ll have to wait and see how EA plans to make up these profits. Â Some are saying that the next-generation will see a massive influx of micro-transactions as a result.
