EA Reduces the Price of Online Passes for Older Titles to $0
A couple of weeks ago, EA did something truly atypical to its usual business plan: it got rid of something that made it money. I'm of course talking Online Passes, an idea the company once conjured up as a way to make money from the used games market. In effect, you could give or sell a certain game to someone, and then the recipient would have to pay a fee (normally around $10) to gain the rights to play the game online. Obviously, this scheme didn't go down too well with consumers and thus EA, for once, caved in and dropped the program.
At the time, it was speculated upon whether or not the company would retroactively drop the Online Pass mechanic from its earlier titles, and fortunately, it has (it's a little unfortunate it doesn't also retroactively refund, but I guess we can't have it all).
According to Game Front, the Xbox 360 has the updated price of $0 reflected for the passes, with the changes coming soon to the PlayStation network.
This is of course a great move by EA, but we're certainly not done with this used games predicament yet. With the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 rumored to change how used game sales are handled, this move by EA may only temporarily give gamers a reprieve.
