EA discontinuing Online Pass starting today
EA has made some of its Online Pass offerings free though Xbox Live today, a move the firm said will be rolled out across all of its existing franchises.
The move is part of the process of eliminating Online Pass in games currently on the market. EA announced earlier this month that future titles wouldn't include the much maligned monetization scheme.
"As we discontinue Online Pass for our new EA titles, we are also in the process of eliminating it from all our existing EA titles as well," a spokesperson told Eurogamer. "We heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether.
"Players will see it first with some EA Sports titles, where a prompt to enter an Online Pass code will no longer appear in-game; with other titles we are simply making Online Passes available free of charge online.
"These are rolling updates that are taking effect over the next several weeks. We hope players continue to enjoy our games and online services for a long time to come."
The firm has posted a blog feature explaining all of this in detail through here.
Originally noticed by NeoGAF, the following titles no longer had prices attached to them:
- Battlefield Bad Company 2's VIP Pass
- Skate 3's Skate Share Pack
- Bulletstorm Online Pass
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass
- Medal of Honor Online Pass
- Shift 2 Unleashed Online Pass
All the above were originally 800 MS Points.
Dragon Age: Origins' The Stone Prisoner and Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network Pass which were 1200 Points at one time are now free.
Dragon Age 2's Black Emporium DLC and American McGee's Alice which came with Alice: Madness Returns is now free. You will still need to own the later in order to play it.
Online Passes for Tiger Woods 14 and Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel will still run you 800 MS Points.
Thanks, Eurogamer.