EA’s Online Passes Are Now Dead

Earlier this month EA announced they would be shutting down the Online Pass program and that is already taking place for currently released titles. The company is now removing all Online Pass restrictions and expects to complete the process within the next few weeks. 

EA Sports games are the first to be affected as there will no longer be a prompt to enter a code for online access. This should be the case already or will be very soon. Other titles from the company may instead offer the Online Pass to download for free from the marketplace. Future releases will simply not require an Online Pass.

The Online Pass was introduced in 2010 as a way to generate revenue from used copies of games by walling off access to online functionality until a $10 fee was paid. Just one year later though EA declared that they weren’t making the money off the Online Pass that they had anticipated. Meanwhile they were preventing some consumers from even spending money on digital content and new game sales weren’t seeing any boost from it.

Of course dropping the Online Pass was not just a gesture of goodwill. It’s become clear that the Xbox One and likely the PS4 will have measures in place to restrict or eliminate the used game market as we now know it rendering the Online Pass obsolete. Regardless Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers will not have to deal with the Online Pass from now on and that is a good thing.