EA Abandoning Online Pass FeatureDing dong the witch is dead, which old witch? The controversial Online Pass witch! Well, at least for EA games anyway as the publisher has announced that it is abandoning the feature going forward.
EA’s senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg confirmed the discontinuation of the Online Pass feature to Venture Beat. “Yes, we’re discontinuing Online Pass,” he said. “None of our new EA titles will include that feature.”
According to Reseburg, EA launched the program ”As an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”
I had to read it twice in case my eyes were skipping words. Apparently EA has seen the light!
I have been bitching at EA for roughly the past two months straight. Since I bought
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel explicitly to play online with a friend of mine in Brunei (he loves the game, and I love co-op) it has yet to work at all. The game's multiplayer AND singleplayer are tied to an online pass! That's right, certain singleplayer features are bound by it as well. The game will not allow me to access the armory, customize my mask, or even save my character progress without the online pass. To my dismay, and many other players in the region (Region 2, Middle East), the online pass fails to register and for the few of us who caved and thought we could just buy another one, we can't do that either. No online pass can be found on the PSN/SEN Store despite the game suggesting that you buy one when the existing one fails to register. According to EA's AnswerHQ support response, if the online pass is not working we should return the game to the point of sale and get a refund, however all major retailers in the region have a policy that if a software product with "a serial key" has been opened it cannot be returned. The irony of course is "how would you know it's defective without opening it?" EA AnswerHQ have also implied that the problem may be due to Sony's PSN/SEN Store's lacking support for Region 2. Sony have yet to respond to my inquiries.
Anyway, after about 55 days of daily communication (and, let's face it, outright bitching) on AnswerHQ, EA live support, and Sony Support, I am greeted with this headline! I feel.. somewhat elated but at the same time still unsatisfied.
