Ubisoft will have their own ‘online pass’ in the form of Uplay Passport, it’s been revealed.
Driver: San Francisco will be one of the first to use the system, which will lock out multiplayer to anyone that hasn’t got a code, obviously something new copies of the game will come with.
It’s a hot topic here at TSA, with many readers discussing the pros and cons of such schemes (and in particular Sony’s PSN Pass) but one thing’s for sure – it’s here to stay.
The move follows EA, THQ, Codemasters and Sony, who are all now experimenting with similar ideas at different levels.
skibadee
this will be the standard soon.
BIGAL-1992
The domino effect for Online passes has already begun, and to be honest, I couldn’t care less about it.
bigdon23
for me personally, i buy games preowned if its a game that im not sure about. if i like it i will then buy dlc and the sequels.
this is where (i believe) they will lose ultimately.
Rocket_345
Only a matter of time before activision announce thiers now surely. People who refuse to buy games with a pass will soon be left with very little or indeed nothing to play as this is the future.
Death_In_Flamez
Actually, think how much more money Activision would get if they were seen as the only ones with the “stupid online code thing”
bigdon23
I think they said they will never introduce a fee/pass for call of duty (if im not mistaken)
Although didnt ubi say the same thing!!?
xdarkmagician
I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure all of Activisions games have P2P multiplayer. Whereas I know for sure all of EAs games have dedicated servers. THQ I believe uses a mix of the 2, and I think Ubi is also a mix, but mostly dedicated. Meaning everybody but Acti has some form of server, thereby allowing them to charge for access to it. No server- no fee.
DapperHayden007
At least Ubisoft do not take the online feature away after a couple of years like EA! But i do not approve of these passes one bit!
DapperHayden007
TALK ABOUT A DEFINITION OF INSANITY!
TSBonyman
It would be great if, when buying a new game, i could have the option of buying the online-free version instead of the free-online version..
xdarkmagician
I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking of never using my pass codes and then demanding a refund of the amount they charge for the online pass. Since they want to say they’re providing a service they should fall into the service providers guarantee category. Which guarantees a refund or compensation for a service that is either broke or under performs, doesn’t meet the customers expectations of purpose or fails to meet the specific result that were agreed upon at time of purchase. It also sets standards for the service, and if those standards aren’t meet, they need to compensate the customer. Imagine all the times the servers go down, wouldn’t it be nice to be compensated for not being able to use the service you’re now charged for.
The Lone Steven
I am not suprised and i don’t really care any more. Although i thought the PSN Pass was going to be the pass for each preowned copy? Does this mean that each Ubisoft will require 2 online passes?(PSN and Ubisoft)
fattyuk
Buy new then everyone’s happy!
The Lone Steven
But not everyone can afford it new. Why do you always say this on every Online pass article? It didn’t even help.
fattyuk
Well I apologise if you can’t afford it, would be interesting to know how much money you actualy earn each month if you can’t afford £30 to buy s game brand new!
The Lone Steven
Most games are £40 new! You have been saying buy new on every single pass article and it is starting to get tiresome. Also i am confused about the PSN pass and Ubi pass and you didn’t help.
This punishes us gamers as we can’t lend the game to a mate as he would have to pay to access the online part. what’s to stop the publishers from introducing DRM into their games that restricts the game to one system and requries an online connection.
The preowned market supports the gaming market as 60-70%(an example) of tradins are to help to cover the cost of the new games. Without the preowned market,i am willing to bet that the sales of new games would drop a lot as people would wait for the price to drop with in turn would affect the publishers and developers. I think Companies should sit down and work out a deal with every retailer that sells preowned if they want the extra change. Or include a trial for the online part in every new game. I wouldn’t mind if there was a trial for the online part as it would allow people who brought it preowned to get a taster of the online part and decide if they want to pay for a pass. I doubt that the publishers are losing that much from preowned sales as the profits made from new copies and DLC would be enough to maintain the servers.
david
Its one pass per game, the PSN pass is for Sony published games not for all games that use the PSN.
@fattyuk none of your comments ever seem to help and you keep saying the same thing.
colmshan1990
The PSN Pass is only for Sony published games, like Resistance, and presumably future games like Uncharted 3, or a future Killzone, etc.
fattyuk
Brilliant brilliant brilliant !!
Nuff said,
Sad Panda
The Passes themselves are bad enough but do we have to have brand names?
When will one of them release the “cake and eat it” pass to go with the “you just paid £10 for content on the disk” DLC.
Thank god I still have my SNES/N64
fattyuk
wonder how much the overheads of goldeneye was compared to uncharted.
Sad Panda
Wonder which was the better game and the one I got the most use from? Just because a game has a bigger budget doesn’t make a better game. Maybe if people found a game better value for money they wouldn’t find the need to trade it.
Plus, Neither had an online pass.
xdarkmagician
How many millions of uncharted budget goes to advertising. I never once saw a commercial for goldeneye. 100 million for BF3. seriously who do you think pays for that? Do you honestly believe EA takes a 100 million off their net for that or maybe do you think EA believes they’ll sell, say… 10 million passes instead. Why should the consumer be forced to pay for bad management. Your whole support the industry just because belief may help you sleep at night, but you know what, it doesn’t fix any of the problems. The industry is broken, because it’s always been broken. Google how Bobby Kotic saved Avtivision, or how EA forced sega into a publishing deal by threatening to sell bootlegged SEGAs, or how Nintendo would (and still) screw over 3rd party devs… by charging outrageous amounts for dev kits, forcing the dev to pay all cost of development and cartridge manufacturing and then refusing to allow the game on the NES, or google how a publisher buys a dev team just to get the IP and then lays everybody off.