EA Getting on the bandwagon.

Have a read from another forum i belong to.
Battlefield 3 pre order set to begin: online pass to compensate server costs


2 August, 2011
Battlefield 3 pre order is set to begin pretty soon. Meanwhile Electronic Arts says that its upcoming Battlefield 3 will require multiplayer gamers to buy an online pass. The company has described that the move is to find money as compensation for its server costs. The company costs when a gamer creates an account in its multiplayer platform, says Patrick Bach, Battlefield 3's executive producer.

According to Mr. Bach, online pass is only meant to compensate the money the company may lose in creating accounts for multilayer mode. The move was not to punish the gamers, Mr. Bach adds.

Users will have to register a code to access the multiplayer mode of Battlefield 3. Mr. Bach did not even wish to call it an online pass. “I think it's our own backend. I'm not sure I want to call our system an online pass.”

“The whole idea is that we're paying for servers,” he added, “and if you create a new account there is a big process on how that is being handled in the backend”, he added.

“We would rather have you buy a new game than a used game because buying a used game is only a cost to us; we don't get a single dime from a used game, but we still need to create server space and everything for you, the company executive described.
Strange article!!! hope it turns out to be for pre owned only, so we have to pay for a dedi and then pay to get an account to go online and use it???!!!??!?

EA sucks end of, they know they suck so they slap their name on every good game to bring up their popularity but in the process bringing the original dev down to their level. Bioware for example used to be my favourite but now everythings EA-ised and its not good

Wow, I'm waiting to buy this until its cheaper, than. Ridiculous.

Hate to break it to you but EA has been on the bandwagon for a while, in fact I think they may have started this trend. They have several games that follow this model already.

PohTayToez said:

Hate to break it to you but EA has been on the bandwagon for a while, in fact I think they may have started this trend. They have several games that follow this model already.

Click to expand...

You never had to pay extra for MOD or BFBC2 i know we had to pay for VEITCONG.

Wait a second,
let me be sure that I got this.
So once you have purchased the game you still would need to pay more to play the game online.
And would this be only one time fee for all EA games with online multiplayer or only this BattleField 3.

russb said:

You never had to pay extra for MOD or BFBC2 i know we had to pay for VEITCONG.

Click to expand...

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Dead Space 2 both need online passes for multiplayer, and they've released several other games that are missing features if you don't have the online pass.

mihir said:

Wait a second,
let me be sure that I got this.
So once you have purchased the game you still would need to pay more to play the game online.
And would this be only one time fee for all EA games with online multiplayer or only this BattleField 3.

Click to expand...

If you buy the game new, it comes with an online pass. If you buy it used you have to pay $10 to play online.

It makes no sense. They said they make no money if I buy a used game. But the "used" game is already paid for and whoever is selling it transfers his account to me if I purchase it. They don't lose money at all. It's almost the same as a friend giving me their game because they don't play it anymore.


EA sucks. They dont' even make sports games on PC anymore and now they're trying to be greedy and take away used game market as well. What a bunch of dipshits.

EA are parasites.

I actually think this is an alright idea, does this now mean that when we pick up a used PC game, there's at least a chance of having some online functionality after purchasing an online pass?

Yeah, EA has done this for at least a year, if not longer. The $10 for pre-owned games only will allow people that buy used games to get online with the new key... The first I knew of that did this was FIFA 09

Now Warner Brothers on the other hand has gotten on the band wagon...

Help me out fella's as i'm thick,this only applies to people who buy secondhand
as i thought it applied to everyone who bought the game.

Nope, just to people who buy used games. Basically EA is just trying to combat Gamestop and other retailers who have a major part of their business in reselling used games.

*sniff* I smell GREED. Yet another title I wont buy or help support in any way shape or form. Now I wont even buy it used later down in life either. Can only blame gamers though here, if everyone didn't buy their games they would change their tune quickly.

And they wonder why people pirate games.

Motorcharge said:

And they wonder why people pirate games.

Click to expand...

Almost all the Pirated games(new) cannot be played online.

mihir said:

Almost all the Pirated games(new) cannot be played online.

Click to expand...

Not true at all....there is a big community of pirated servers out there for many games. This move by EA will only encourage more growth on that side of the fence.

This is a ridiculous business decision. Firstly if i were an executive at EA, i would just embed those costs across the board, making it invisible and therefore not attracting criticism. But the concept is flawed anyway. Presumably if i buy a game (and pay the embedded overheads/server costs), and sell or give it away, i can no longer play it. That means the new person using it isn't a net additional resource drain on servers. So i don't see the additional cost. This is very back wards.

bigfellla said:

This is a ridiculous business decision. Firstly if i were an executive at EA, i would just embed those costs across the board, making it invisible and therefore not attracting criticism. But the concept is flawed anyway. Presumably if i buy a game (and pay the embedded overheads/server costs), and sell or give it away, i can no longer play it. That means the new person using it isn't a net additional resource drain on servers. So i don't see the additional cost. This is very back wards.

Click to expand...

bigfellla the way you have explained it i agree with you all the way mate.