In an announcement that is sure to surprise absolutely nobody, DICE has confirmed that Battlefield 3 will in fact have an online pass. Most figured, given EA’s proclivity for including these online passes in their popular releases, that the highlight of 2011 for the publisher would also be sporting a play-to-play pass, but now it is for sure.
But don’t fret – if Battlefield 3 does happen to come into your possession by way of a used game purchase all hope is not lost. It has also been confirmed via Twitter that the online pass for Battlefield will be available for purchase in the online store.
Yes, an online pass is one of the new trends in gaming that have put many of us off, but it’s also a natural progression for those publishers hoping to combat used games sales. In fact, such a big chunk of revenue is made from online pass sales that it helps bolster sales of many games regardless of their popularity, but Battlefield 3 is a different entity in my opinion.
As the most anticipated element of Battlefield 3 – although the game is sporting a much more robust single player experience – multiplayer is where most will flock. With that in mind it would be fair to imagine that online pass purchases might be extremely high, for those that haven’t already pre-ordered the game that is.
Even more interesting to consider, given Call of Duty’s competition with Battlefield, is when the juggernaut shooter franchise will also begin imploring an online pass. Yes, Activision does offer Call of Duty Elite premium subscribers the chance to purchase all of their DLC, and some advanced stat-tracking ahead of time, but the multiplayer is completely free.
Perhaps, if Battlefield ever wants to catch up to Call of Duty, (although developer DICE has said they will not make their title an annual release) EA might have to reevaluate the online pass in this particular circumstance. With a leg up on the competition in terms of visual quality, due in no small part to the very impressive Frostbite 2.0 engine, Battlefield might want to hedge their bets by at least equaling Call of Duty in investment.
Will the inclusion of an online pass affect Battlefield 3 sales in any way? Do you think that EA should consider dropping the pass to remain competitive with Call of Duty?
Battlefield 3 releases October 25, 2011 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Twitter
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I find “online pass for a EA game” to not be news. The only time we should expect EA to be in front of a game and not have a online pass is if it is a EA partners type of thing Like Valve or Cryteck.
i don’t see the big deal, if you buy a new copy of the game, you get the pass. this only effects those who buy their games 2nd hand, its EA’s way of making money from pre-owned games (seeing as how the shop takes in all the cash from pre-owned stuff).
people hating for the sake of hating need to grow the f*** up, from a business stand point this isn’t a bad idea, you just pay an extra $5-10 (if buying pre-owned).
No it doesn’t. I purchased the game new then lost my windows live account and cannot retrieve it. The pass code for BF3 was used with the now unusable account and therefore will no longer work.
The Online Pass is the reason I don’t own Battlefield Bad Company 2 and why I won’t buy any of the Madden games used. I understand they don’t get any money from me when I buy used and I completely accept the need for an online pass, but until the resellers bring down the cost of those titles requiring a pass, it’s not worth it. $30-$35 for a used one year old game, plus a $10 online pass is a bit steep. I’d buy something new instead or a different older game. That being said, they already hooked me with BF3 and I pre-ordered it months ago for the 360 so it doesn’t affect me here. And this year’s Madden…I’ll just wait and see if I can buy it during a Black Friday sale for $30 New like I did last time.
In Battlefield Bad Company 2.
I have it, u dont need Online pass there, if u got it on PC.
I bought Bad Company 2 used and I didn’t have any problems playing. Sure, I would have to buy the VIP pass to get some extra maps, but you can play pretty easily without it.
Or you can just call up EA and have them give you a code for a VIP pass, which is what I ended up doing. No cost to me.
This isn’t even news, if you’re buying the game for pc then you don’t have a problem, pretty much all retailers don’t do used PC game sales.
In fact I completely agree with ea’s decision to do this, since publishers and the developers get no money at all from used game sales at all. Which is pretty dumb, since your money doesn’t support the people who actually made the game.
Ppl that support online passes arent lookin pass the surface. Im not degrading anyone’s intelligence but online passes are not “smart business tatics” its GREED $$. The company has alreadi made money off the original sale. It jus wants to make more money by tryna profit from used sales game. Dats how I see it. Greedy companies throwin a tantrum cuz someone doesnt realli like their product or is bored with it quickly and sells it to a store. And the company tries to make money off da re-sale. Its a sad tatic. Dats jus my opinion.
agree 100%. I hate the level of greed. So what if some of us cant afford a new game or are in fact to clever to fork over a full €50 for one damn game. I never ever buy new games.
They hold back on content to release as a DLC and then they introduce Online Passes, gaming sucks so much now.
Or they just want to make some money from everyone who plays the game instead of just those who buy it at the start. Which I think is fair. If you pass the game around to all your friends who play (which I do with my games), EA (or DICE or anyone else) has lost out on however many sales. And they don’t get any money off the pawn shops/retailers reselling their games.
It’s like pirating music. And I’d like to support DICE on this one. Do what you want.
No, it’s greed. If they wanted to lower sales of used games they can do 2 things. Stop making games that people can beat in an afternoon and they won’t show up at the shops used so often. I never trade in a good game but the ones i beat in 5 hours hardly warrant keeping. Or they can go the PC route of using CD-keys at one use per game. That said, EA and DICE are HUGE companies, meaning they have literally tons of cash. Do they need more? no. sure everyone could use more money but whether or not they need it remains to be seen. To me this is like charging money for content that comes with the disc. And it isn’t like pirating music in the least. If you lend out a game or resale it its like buying a used car. The auto makers don’t get any of the profits from used sales of cars. So is that not the same thing?
do you even understand how much it costs to develop a game? A rough estimate on salary alone for a 2 yar project costs 10,000,000$! (thats only with 100 developers btw) that only includes the salary of the developers too. If you factor in all the Other personnel, the pr, the manufacturing of the retail copies, the cost of the servers, the computers the devs use ect; then the bill begins to push upwards of 50-100 million$. So to say this is just greed really speaks towards how little knowledge you have towards the costs of making a AAA title like this.
The cost of making a game may be 50-100 million dollars, but sales of video games usually reach triple the cost to produce. Black Ops has over $1.5 billion dollars in sales. You subtract all the cost to develop the game, even if it cost $1 billion, Activision has turned a $500 million dollar profit. Profit that most movies wish they could duplicate.
And that is why I am going to wait the extra 2 weeks and get MW3 brand new, because it’s the principle that matters.
To use a CoD game against any other game for this argument is entirely mute. CoD is the exception when it comes to sales, primarily because the series (even for individual titles) is the highest grossing FPS to date.
And also, what principle? The principle that when someone buys a game used the people who actually made it and distributed it don’t get a cent of it? Even though they’ve spent thousands of hours to get it from the studio to the consumer?
why would the producers be entitled to make money off the sale of a used item ifr they already sold it.? I didn’t pay chrysler money for my used van. I don’t pay studios for buying used dvds. it is an unfair tax and it is going to cost them in the long run…..or you more than likely.
if I was a game rental place I would sue. My local store knew nothing of this and they paid good money for a game they can’t rent for online play more than once. they are out hundreds of dollars. way to hurt other businesses by forcing us to buy only new copies.