Better late than never, it’s time for the results of the Massive Poll! I do apologise for the tardiness, the delay occured due to a combination of a bad back, leaves on the line, rioting and single mothers.
We asked you ‘When would you be willing to pay $10/€10/£8 for an online pass?’ to try to discover the spending habits of people who buy pre-owned games have altered.
With over 500 votes the results show that 30% will never buy an online pass and nearly 9% of voters will not buy new games that feature the system.
Whilst this is considerable percentage it does mean that over 60% of TSA gamers have accepted passes in some way, quite a feat considering the huge opposition when the first online pass arrived a little more than a year ago.
23% of respondants would buy a pass if they thought they would enjoy the online component of the game, closely following that 21% of you thought that the original retail price of a game should be lowered by $10/€10/£8 to account for the pass system.
A thoughtful 12% of voters (who are probably parents) wanted passes that were locked to a console rather than user, meaning that a single pass could used for multiple accounts.
Finally, just 3% (sixteen voters in total) would always buy a pass.
For a concept that is barely year old,  the gaming public seem to be slowly accepting online passes. As Alex said in his E3 report, ‘the concept of online passes is here to stay.’
zakwhorules
Online Passes are a clever way for the makers of the game to get money of the sales of pre-owned games but you may still get screwed over with the online pass, i did with BFBC2, bought it new and the VIP code didn’t work and my local GameStation wouldn’t replace it because “We don’t have any New BFBC2”. I when back many time before giving up and buying one of the Playstation Store.
Youles
Can’t really borrow games from mates to play online either…you’d have to pay £8 for borrow a friend’s game essentially!
Youles
And how will this work for LoveFilm game rentals and BlockBuster…will they give a temporary Pass for the number of nights the game is hired for?! Awkward when you consider how much a game for rental costs!
colmshan1990
Or they could sell them a special rental copy and charge them more.
It’s what companies do with movies, so why not games?
Forrest_01
“the concept of online passes is here to stay.”
I don’t like it in any way shape or form, but this is unfortunately the sad reality. It’s not like there is anything you can do about it other than not buy the games as well, so its not like we can even oppose the idea properly, as it just sees us gamers missing out.
I just wish that they would direct the focus on the people who are actually benefitting from pre-owned sales – The retailers.
Unfortunately, it’s just easier for them to charge us.
heedbaw
I’m with you on this one, people are a soft target as the retailers could screw over publishers even more if they tried to extract any form of 2nd hand sales money.
I voted never for myself, as a boycott is just futile going by the amount of people that have been saying they’re not bothered as they only buy new.
Although the last month or so I’ve justgave up completely on games as publishers are already screwing plenty of money out of people for the same old shit with a shiny new skin.
Gaztee
As I don’t play online much the pass system doesn’t bother me too much atm. Interesting results none the less & surely will only encourage companys to persue this revenue stream?
TSBonyman
Some games, especially those which push the online part of the game and only provide a short sp campaign, should definitely be cheaper imo.Then let those who want to use the online pay for it when they go online with the game.
MadJunkBoy
i think im one of those 16 who choosed “always”…
and since the pass comes with the game, when i buy brand new, this doesn’t really affect me…(i think)
Forrest_01
Yeah, if you only buy new, this wont affect you at all. It’s only to those that buy pre-owned that this would make a difference.
MadJunkBoy
but will it always affect those who buy pre-owned?
they will get the code if they just wait till the price has dropped? they are still buying the games new…
Forrest_01
It may not always affect pre-owned, as some games have not started utilising this as yet, such as CoD for example (which surprises me tbh as that would surely be a huge money spinner for them) & there is of course always the slim chance that someone may not have used their code.
The latter is pretty much a gamble though & like you say, it is probably simply better to wait until it hits an internet discount to pick it up rather than go the pre-owned route.
I have started to pick more & more things up online due in part to discounts, but also in part to online passes. But I do still like to trade my games in when I am done with them, so the pre-owned market is pretty useful to me as it helps to subsidise the cost of some new games – The rate of return was pretty pitiful before, so I only see it being worse if you don’t have an ‘intact’ code.
Of course, it doesn’t affect singleplayer only games, but even some of these have started to cash in with something similar for various unlocks & so forth when you buy the game new. I have to say though, that I much prefer to receive additional bonuses for buying new rather than being charged for not.
MadJunkBoy
yeahh surprises me too that COD hasn’t picked this up… MW3 maybe?
i think its much better to wait until the prices has dropped some than go to a pre-owned market and buy pre-owned…
cause some pre-owned stores here in sweden charge WAAAAYYYY too much for the pre-owned games, thats how i stopped buying pre-owned (even though it was only 4 or 5 games, but still)
and when i buy brand new i always goes for a special friend of mine… Pricerunner =D
SavageOranges
I hope the online passes will be available to purchase in stores rather than just digitally, because I’m never putting credit card details into the store again so getting an online pass would, for me, mean forking out an additionial, unnecessary €10.
Dimpoc
You could buy PSN gift cards in shops to credit you account with money.
Crazy_Del
Some numbers there. Well as you all know me all my games are always brand new and day 1 but I used to borrow friend’s game (well a swap that is) and it can cause problems with Online =/
Cheers Tuffcub
KeRaSh
Why do 10$ equal 10€ but 10€ are only 8 Pounds when the Euro is much closer to the Pound than to the Dollar?
colossalblue
I suggested those price points for the survey because that’s generally the rough figure that online passes are charging. You’re right though. Currently €10 is equal to around £8.70 but $14.30. I guess they set prices based on local perceptions of value rather than on hard currency conversions.
KeRaSh
Yeah, my comment wasn’t directed at your numbers because I knew you pulled them from rough estimates of actual prices. I feel cheated by the people who think the Euro is worth as much as the Dollar, which clearly is not true, no matter what kind of factors people add to the equation. Even the Big Mac Index shows that there is a difference in the currencies.
colmshan1990
I wanted to pick 3 & 4.
I’m obviously only going to pick up multiplayer for games I’m actually going to play online, as well as make sure it works across multiple accounts on the same PS3.
jcor
I don’t understand why almost 9% said they’d NEVER buy a game that had an online pass. I can understand not wanting to buy a 2nd hand game with an online pass but if you’re buying a game new what difference does it make?
heedbaw
I can see why people would never buy any game with a pass as a matter of principal, but due to the numbers being sold a boycott won’t really have any impact. I’m guessing that Sony introduced theirs as they have the stats of those from 3rd parties that have been sold through the PS store.
lmao aside, proof reading had me a typo as the POS store!
stonyk
I would guess that 9% have decided that as they use the return of games to fuel their next purchases they won’t get enough money when returning the game. That is assuming that retailers wont exchange these online pass games for as much as non online pass games?
heedbaw
Used game prices don’t seem to have changed much yet, last time I was in Gamestation they were selling 2nd hand copies of games that needed a pass for £1-£2 less than the brand new copies.
Maybe when people start to pay attention then they will start to drop, I did ask if I could get a game with a tenner off as it would need a £10 pass to work and they weren’t interested.