Here in September 2011, we find ourselves about a year-and-a-half out from the birth of online pass. It was back in early 2010 that Electronic Arts started including codes to unlock multiplayer and other features in new copies of their games, and since this then craze has caught on with publishers throughout the gaming industry. So, now that gamers have had some time to get used to online pass, how is it doing?
According to EA CFO Eric Brown, not so great. Speaking at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference, Brown said that revenues EA has seen from online pass haven’t been “dramatic,” with online pass only managing to pull in $10-$15 million since it’s initial implementation.
All things considered, that isn’t that much money, but it’s still $10-$15 million more than they would have seen from used sales without using online pass. Needless to say, even though Electronic Arts isn’t making billions of dollars from online pass, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. Still, I have to say that I’d like to see publishers take a page out of id Software’s book rather than locking vital components of a video game and holding them at ransom, but what can you do? After all, money talks.
All things considered, that isn’t that much money, but it’s still $10-$15 million more than they would have seen from used sales without using online pass. Needless to say, even though Electronic Arts isn’t making billions of dollars from online pass, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. Still, I have to say that I’d like to see publishers take a page out of id Software’s book rather than locking vital components of a video game and holding them at ransom, but what can you do? After all, money talks.
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