Further to EA dropping online passes going forward, they’ve reduced the asking price of a good chunk of existing ones to zero. In a strange, oddly unannounced move, the required passes for some online and some single player (ugh) are now free.
The list appears to be limited to Xbox 360 games at the moment, but if you’ve got any of the game below second hand and haven’t yet bought an online pass, at least now you can grab them for free.
- Alice: Madness Returns – American McGee’s Alice  (was 800msp)
- Bad Company 2 VIPÂ (was 800msp)
- Bulletstorm Online Pass (was 800msp)
- Dragon Age: Origins – The Stone Prisoner (was 1200msp)
- Dragon Age 2: The Black Emporium (was 800msp)
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass (was 800msp)
- Mass Effect 2: Cerberus Network (was 1200msp)
- Medal of Honor Online Pass (was 800msp)
- SHIFT 2 UNLEASHEDâ„¢ ONLINE PASSÂ (was 800msp)
- Skate 3: Skate Share Pack (was 800msp)
Quite why EA are doing this is anyone’s guess – perhaps the online sections of the above are closing up soon, or something like that. Regardless, perhaps you have two consoles, or some other reason – at least they’re now currently free.
Via GAF.
Jas-n
Should also mean that those who bought the game new, but hadn’t used the pass, can unlock online… no idea why they expired.
DapperHayden007
EA giving something away?!?!
What are they planning now?…
bmg_123
Ah, the old days of Bad company 2 VIP, when a pre-order bonus would net you several map-packs instead of just a gun skin or something.
blackredyellow
No good can come of this!
Peter Chapman
uh oh… free online passes on the Xbox 360 but not PS3?
The Avenger
Blasphemy on the site :P
ron_mcphatty
Are EA’s boardroom staff chaining themselves to the good ship XBox One? That could be a giant cock up in the making.
Bilbo_bobbins
In a way I hope they do. It will teach them a lesson.
psychobudgie
Would be lovely to see Sony take a huge backward step from EA at E3 and leave Microsoft and EA to their DRM marriage made in Redwood. Won’t happen, but it would be hilarious if it did and would hopefully kill two rather large vultures with one rather large rock.
ron_mcphatty
It would be great to see the same range of games on all next gen machines, but I wouldn’t complain too much if the PS4 became known for mostly sporting top quality first party titles and oodles of impressive indie games! EA aren’t the be-all, I’m sure PlayStation would have a good chance of surviving without them if it came to it.
Awayze
Maybe because no one plays these oldass games.
hazelam
gotta love how the offline, single player on Kingdoms of Amalur has an online pass.
still i got it for free on the PS3 when they launched the game
Porcupine_I
In preparation to shut down servers?
cnutard
http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates
Doesn’t look like server shut downs are planned for any time soon with these games.
I reckon it’s more to do with the partnership they have going on with Microsoft for the new Xbox.
JBoo
There must be a ‘NEW’ way to rip people off coming from EA then soon LoL:D Like MS they want to squeeze every last penny off their Loyal Fans & the sad part is people take it, oh well :-/
deadwelsh
Hooray – i dont own any EA game so I am unaffected, had i paid for one of these last week say, and now find out its free I would be mighty pissed!
TBH this stuff puts me off buying EA games – I am always tempted by the Tiger woods games, but ifIi have to pay to play online, and then there is the chance of that game games servers being turned off in 2 revisions time, its a no brainer to leave it well alone IMO