Don't expect EA to bring back the Online Pass program any time soon or ever, for that matter.
Back in May we saw EA discontinue the program, much to the relief of frustrated gamers. In an interview with Joystiq, Electronic Arts' President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau stated, "We're not crafting a strategy to bring [Online Pass] back, you will not input codes to unlock your game, it's not going to happen"
Now you would like to think they stopped the program because they listened to the consumer who didn't want to pay another fee to play online. In reality, the Online Pass program was mostly discontinued because "the reputational damage [Online Pass] was causing us was in excess of the dollars we were making." There you have it, it all comes down to reputation.
EA doesn't have a good reputation with gamers at the moment and the discontinuation of the Online Pass program might have given them some points on the good side. How do you feel about EA?
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