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EA Sports boss Andrew Wilson says that the firm ditched online pass because it damaged the games.
Speaking to MCV at E3 last week, the label VP said that forcing gamers to put codes in to access content had become too big an impact for fans. And he denied that EA was planning any further measures to combat pre-owned sales.
"When we launched it, we did so because we are investing an exorbitant amount of money in online services and the provision of online services, and to be frank we still do," he said.
"And we thought it made sense to get some compensation for the use of those services. However, what became apparent to us after running it for a while, was that the impact that was having to users having to enter codes before they could get into the game, was too great.
"We have a gamer-first mentality – we don’t always get credit for it but we do. We looked at it, and said ‘we don’t want to put that barrier there for gamers to have to go through that process. We are going to take it away. We are going to get rid of it. We will go back to making great games and it will all work out.’"
He added: "It’s about how do we make sure we deliver the best possible seamless experience for gamers, how do we get rid of those pieces in the middle that would otherwise impede their gaming. How do we get back to focusing on building great games?
When asked if EA was looking to charge fans for online content he added:
"That’s not our aim. We’ve done away with it."
You can read more from Andrew Wilson in next week’s MCV magazine.
