EA Sports to charge used game customers $10 for online capabilities

In these tough economic times where it’s becoming harder to pay for what people want, we understand that used games might be the way for some people to enjoy gaming. Apparently, Electronic Arts doesn’t understand – they plan to charge you $10 if you want online capabilities to be unlocked on your used game. More after the jump.

 

In these tough economic times where it’s becoming harder to pay for what people want, we understand that used games might be the way for some people to enjoy gaming. Apparently, Electronic Arts doesn’t understand – they plan to charge you $10 if you want online capabilities to be unlocked on your used game.

 

 

Yes, you heard right. The way it works is that your EA Sports game is shipped with a redeemable code. That code contains the unlock for online play and a few bonus things they threw in there. It’s not like entering long codes isn’t annoying enough, but for online play? Come on EA! If you’re one of the people that bought the used game you’re given a 7 day grace period to try out the game online with the bonus content but then you’ll have to pony up for it. 

 

 

From the EA FAQ: 

“In order to continue to enhance the online experiences that are attracting nearly five million connected game sessions a day, again, we think it’s fair to get paid for the services we provide and to reserve these online services for people who pay EA to access them.”

Seriously? EA has had multiple high volume games with online capabilities and they haven’t seemed to stop making money or feel the bite from all the gamers. I think that they’re starting to forget that the reason they’re successful is because we’re the ones buying the games! 

 

 

The first game to ship with the Online Pass “feature” is Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11. I just honestly hope that other companies won’t jump on this bandwagon, because it really does seem like something that would convince me to buy another game.

 

[Via EA Sports Online Pass]