EA Sports to charge $10 to play second hand games online wrote:EA does not like when you buy used games, and it keeps coming up with ways to incent gamers to avoid the used game section at their local retailer. With Mass Effect 2, you were given access to new content at launch with a one-time use code included in the box. With Bad Company 2 it was a day-one map pack.
If you bought the game new, you got the goods. If you bought it used, you had to pay $10. With its sports games, however, EA is playing hardball: it will cost you an extra $10 if you want to play online with a secondhand game.
Online pass
Starting in June with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, sports games will come with a one-time use code that will allow gamers to play online on the Xbox 360 or PS3 systems. If you rent the game, you can play online for seven days for free, but that only works one time per game. If you buy the game used and want to activate the online features, you'll have to buy the Online Pass directly from EA, for $10.
EA has a page dedicated to explaining the system if you'd like more details, but it's pretty cut-and-dried. "When you connect online with your new EA SPORTS game for the first time, you'll be prompted to confirm your EA account details. If you don’t already have an EA account, you'll be asked to accept our Online Terms and Conditions and then create an account. After confirming or creating your account, a screen will appear that enables you to redeem your Online Pass code," the company explains. The code is found on a card inside your case, and if you don't have that, you can buy a new code from within the game. Simple!
You'll also be given access to "bonus" content, but it sounds suspiciously like items that were simply left out of the game in order to provide a false sense of value. Here is the official example: "...in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11, an advanced driver used on the PGA TOUR for play in-game will be included with the Online Pass. Our goal is to provide value to consumers, and this is one piece of that philosophy."
People want to play online, and they need to pay for it
EA is oddly blunt when describing why this system has been put into place. "When we see how many people are playing all of our games online, consumers are telling us that competition is endemic to sports in a way that most people don’t get just by playing a game alone on their couch," Andrew Wilson, Senior Vice President of World Wide Development at EA Sports wrote on the FAQ. "As a result, we’ve made a significant investment to offer the most immersive online experience available. We want to reserve EA SPORTS online services for people who pay EA to access them." If you're not buying the game new, you're not paying EA, so you need to cough up some cash to play online.
GameStop is on board, and will be selling cards with access codes alongside the titles. It makes sense for everyone: EA gets its pound of flesh, and GameStop can continue to hawk used games.
Everyone is looking for new ways to monetize their gaming content, and this move will surely be watched by other publishers hoping to find ways to siphon a few dollars more from gamers' pockets. Will gamers balk, or shrug their shoulders and pay? We'll be watching and listening just as intently as EA to see what kind of impact this has on the sale of sports games. For now, though, be aware of exactly what you're getting into when you buy a used EA Sports title, especially if you like playing online.