DRM News

A short time ago, EA Sports announced a new initiative called Online Pass. What it entails is a one use code being included with every copy of an EA Sports console title. That code will unlock the majority of the multiplayer content, or some other major feature of the game, but can only be used once. So someone buying a used copy of the game will need to pony up the $10-$15 to obtain a code of their own.

EA Sports President Peter Moore talked about Online Pass during an interview with Kotaku.

"One thing I have to do, and it’s my job, and my development team’s job, and my marketing team’s job, is make you not want to trade the game in," Moore said.

Moore talked about hoping that making multiplayer a more ‘value added’ feature might encourage more people to really give online play a try. By EA’s own numbers, while Madden 10 is still popular months after the close of the last NFL season, 350,000 Madden owners logged in to multiplayer once and never returned.

"From our perspective, [it's] conditioning you to punch a code in, to get you going, get some digital content, and conditioning you to look at digital content as a value-add to the game experience itself," Moore said.

Moore also asked people to keep in mind that while multiplayer is free for any new purchaser, it isn’t free for EA to maintain the server network needed to keep it in place for those million plus still actively playing Madden 10 online.

Finally, he talked about his view that a lot of those active in reading games media are new players, and they certainly understand the value of purchasing new vs. used.

"I read everything you write, and then i read everything that they write about what you write underneath, and I will say you have the overwhelming majority of people that are buying new," Moore told me. "And those guys are actually vocal – this is me just saying what I read – against people who buy used. They recognize the business model implications of new versus used used. Whilst I’m not sure they’re angry, they absolutely look at what’s going on in the marketplace and understand totally what it is we’re doing."

Whether or not you agree with the direction EA Sports is taking with their Online Pass program, at least they’re willing to try to explain it to people.