No Online Pass for Syndicate, EA confirms

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 1 February, 2012

"It's about encouraging people to play it."

Syndicate will not use the controversial Online Pass, EA has confirmed.

EA Partners executive producer Jeff Gamon told Eurogamer the decision was made in an effort to encourage all players to play the shooter, which includes a co-op component.

"We want as little resistance or barriers to entry as possible," Gamon said. "The co-op is equal billing in this. We wanted everyone who owns a copy of the game to have access to the entire product."

EA's policy is to include Online Pass in all its games, but this does not apply to EA Partners games.

Last year EA Partners published Portal 2, made by Valve, and Crysis 2, made by Crytek, and neither included Online Pass. But there are differences between these two games and Syndicate, Gamon said, which makes the decision not to include Online Pass all the more surprising.

While Swedish developer Starbreeze is independent, and EA Partners managed the development of the game, Syndicate is an EA-owned IP and the game is published by EA, Gamon said.

"Under normal circumstances it would have had an online pass, but because it didn't have competitive multiplayer and because we wanted as many people as possible to be playing co-op, we got away with it," Gamon explained.

"Maybe another reason for not having the Online Pass is we were confident in the scope of the online game.

"There are nine maps. It's hard to say, but just to play through the maps once on normal is a good six, seven hours. To progress your character and upgrade a few weapons is a heap of content. That and the single-player campaign means hopefully we won't see much in the way of early second hand sales and rentals."

EA's Online Pass - an attempt to discourage pre-owned purchases - hit the headlines last month when it emerged that it unlocked quest content for single-player RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

The Online Pass, included in new copies of the open world fantasy, unlocks the House of Valor faction quest, which includes seven individual single player missions. In addition, it unlocks a Mass Effect 3-themed in-game item - the N7-inspired Shepard's Battle Armour.

If you have a second hand copy of the game, you have to pay for the Online Pass to unlock the content.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 weeks ago

  • Syrette #1 3 weeks ago

    Sorry Gamon, I'll be renting it. I won't be playing your game again once I'm done with both modes, so why would I buy it?


    edit; why am I getting negged for this? Is there something wrong with renting games all of a sudden?
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/12 @ 17:47

  • Biker_Bob_1971 #2 3 weeks ago

    Post deleted at 16:59:10 06-02-2012

  • NotSoSlim #3 3 weeks ago

    Sony should have done this with Twisted Metal. No harm in allowing exemotions for certain games

  • Nova1977 #4 3 weeks ago

    The online pass will be DLC?

  • Pasco #5 3 weeks ago

    Biker Bob, with Battlefield, they know they can get away with it because everyone buys it for the multiplayer anyway. Syndicate is riskier for them and it will be more difficult for them to reach a critical mass of multiplayer users for it to be successful, even more so with an online pass. They know it and if Syndicate is a big success you can bet your somesomething that the next iteration will have an online pass. It has nothing to do with the actual content or "confidence" or however they put it. It also has nothing to do with player feedback.

  • ubergine #6 3 weeks ago

    Wait, so EA's new strategy is an onloan pass for non-online games like Amalur, but no onloan pass for actual online games?

  • bikmate #7 3 weeks ago

    Sold!

  • kinky_mong #8 3 weeks ago

    Perhaps they heard Game was on the brink of collapse so the main company shafting them* with pre-owned sales are no longer a threat.

    *I use "shafting" in it's loosest sense, as I refuse to believe a publisher that releases the same football game with minor changes each year, which then sit at number one in the sales chart for a large chunk of the year is struggling to make ends meet.

  • Afro_Matt #9 3 weeks ago

    Love how now a game which doesn't have online pass is news,EA...them money hungry bastards, grrr :/

  • Ahskay #10 3 weeks ago

    @Pasco

    Yes but why do they implement it in Kingdoms of Amalur? It has no logic at all.

  • des #11 3 weeks ago

    why?

  • super_monty #12 3 weeks ago

    …but £20 DLC to see the end of the game, I called it 1st.

  • God_Octo #13 3 weeks ago

    That's nice, but do we still have to sign up for some bloody EA account? Its so unwarranted now, and I get flashbacks to like 2000 whenever it pops up. I've given my details out to enough companies EA, you don't need my info just to send me spam thank you very much.

    I was about to simply delete the Kingdoms of Amular demo without playing it when it popped up, but you could just skip it so I unfortunately stuck through with the demo.

  • -cerberus- #14 3 weeks ago

    This is too good to be true, there must be a catch...

  • Afro_Matt #15 3 weeks ago

    @Eurocensor Umm no EA did an online pass like well over a year ago with tiger woods 11. Sony started with resistance 3 I think in September.

    And as for the whole financial side, its still greedy, all things considered
    Edited by 1 at 02/02/12 @ 19:17

  • Eraysor #16 3 weeks ago

    It's hard to say, but just to play through the maps once on normal is a good six, seven hours.
    I love the demo but I have to say I think this is complete BS. Unless every level in the full game is about 3x as long as the demo level. You can complete the demo level in 12 minutes (I have anyway).
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/12 @ 19:15

  • Shikasama #17 3 weeks ago

    So their games with online pass..they don't want as many people as possible to play them?

    Surely thats the conclusion from that statement.

  • arcam #18 3 weeks ago

    @Eurocensor Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 came out in 2009 and both used EA's Project $10.

    OK, so it wasn't locking out multiplayer specifically, but it was the first instance of charging second-hand buyers a $10 fee to access the content that came with the retail game.

    The online pass was born in EA boardrooms.
    Edited by 2 at 01/02/12 @ 19:48

  • marblepuke #19 3 weeks ago

    "We want as little resistance or barriers to entry as possible" .. But at other times, in other games its perfectly Ok ?

  • arcam #20 3 weeks ago

    @Eurocensor We can debate semantics I guess, but the whole thing about charging an extra fee to discourage second-hand sales was an EA idea. There's a decent summary in this Feb 2010 article here.

    John Riccitiello saw the crisis coming. In August 2007, soon after becoming CEO of video game maker Electronic Arts (ERTS), he gathered 160 lieutenants in New York and warned them that the $20 billion industry was headed for trouble...

    Riccitiello reworked his strategy last fall at a brainstorming session with his executive team. One major goal: Grab back some of the revenue EA and others were losing as consumers flocked to used games. The secondhand market now accounts for about a third of all games sold in the U.S., or $2 billion annually, says Pachter. At the meeting, Riccitiello green-lighted "Project Ten Dollar," a coupon program to reward people who purchase a new game with downloadable content and upgrades. People who buy used games pay an extra $10 or more for the same goodies.

    To say they copied Sony is disengenous at best. It seems much more like it was the other way around.
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/12 @ 20:18

  • ExcellentBenji #21 3 weeks ago

    Good good good. Online passes are a crappy idea that I absolutely loathe. Paid DLC is a better way to profit from second-hand games rather than an online pass, as I actually benefit from additional content.

  • freethinker101 #22 3 weeks ago

    I smell fear!

  • ubergine #23 3 weeks ago

    If anything, all these single-player bundled DLC shenanigans are copying Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, except that their DLC is available day 1, is content cut from the full game, and is often uninspired rubbish. At least the Dragon Age Origins and Nass Effect 2 content was reasonable value. I guess EA are testing precisely how much about the market will tolerate.

  • fillip2k #24 3 weeks ago

    @ExcellentBenji that's probably one of the best comments so far. I'd rather they binned online passes and put out better DLC rather than silly golden guns etc. Then on the rare occasion I might buy a second hand game they can gain money that way.... (I only buy new the majority of the time because of some kind of crazy OCD, I hate even buying platinum games as they mess up the uniform look of my cases. I think I might need professional help)

  • BloodSaint #25 3 weeks ago

    Wow... seriously guys I don't know why you are all complaining and being negative when EA actually took out their online pass for this game. It should be considered positive news as almost every game released now days require an online pass... Stop trolling/bashing EA, they haven't had the best record but they still make some of the best games that us gamers love (Mass Effect, Battlefield, Dead Space, Fifa, etc.).

  • 5h1nj1 #26 3 weeks ago

    Ok, so with those games that HAVE online pass, they are not trying to "encourage all players to play"? I mean, I know it discourages me from buying them, but I'm surprised, they actually know that. :)

  • UnderTheBridge #27 2 weeks ago

    There's no online pass with this game, However, if you have ms points on your system whilst playing the game will automatically take 10 points every time you play.
    I think it's a good faith thing, if you like playing the game you don't mind paying.....