EA on Microsoft's DRM U-Turn: Online Passes Are Still Dead

Looks like EA really did drop Online Passes out of the kindness of its collective heart. Following Microsoft's dramatic u-turn on the Xbox One's online DRM and used-game policies, the third party publisher has moved to state that 'Project $10' will remain dead.

"As we said a few weeks ago, none of our new EA titles will include online pass, and we are removing it from existing games as well," said EA director of corporate communications John Reseburg.

"Nothing else on today's news, but did want to be clear that our online pass decision was based on player feedback, and there's no change."

Online Passes were pioneered by EA as a means to gate multiplayer content from its major game releases. The idea was to prevent used game sales by containing a one-time-use code to access online features of a title. When a player with a second-hand copy of a game attempts to log on, they are instead prompted to purchase a pass for an additional $10 or so.

But last month, the publisher announced it was scrapping the initiative as "many players didn't respond to the format."

Source: Polygon