I really appreciate that David Jaffe is being straight with the media when he admits Online Passes limit the player base and are ultimately bad for the game. But he is also being straight when he admits it’s all up to the publisher. Sony has really screwed themselves over with the whole Online Pass this year. After all, Uncharted 3’s not exactly Black Ops and neither will Twisted Metal. Especially with the recent news that Online Passes from EA expire; I’m more confident than ever that they are a really bad thing.
This isn’t something that I wanted to harp on but it seems like lots of publishers feel that adding on the Online Pass is doing something positive for them. For instance, Ubisoft for the first time has included an Online Pass for Assassin’s Creed with their new release, Assassin’s Creed Revelations. While the multiplayer here is cool and different it wasn’t exactly blowing it out of the park in Brotherhood. It’s definitely a niche group, not a blockbuster.
They could certainly be serving a little broader group if they got the folks picking the game up at Gamestop used in a couple months to at least try the multiplayer. But no, it’s better to pay-wall the multiplayer so that the people getting the game new are the only ones that will be playing. Which history seems to show, fizzles out in a few months. I also noticed that Ubisoft didn’t bother with a Season Pass, meaning that they aren’t too interested in providing a beefy suite of DLC in the next six months or so. Which I suppose, also says something about their commitment to the game. I guess making $10 off online passes from used games is more important than getting an extra $15-$20 right off the bat for a Season Pass. But then the Season Pass is a commitment to providing $20-$25 worth of multiplayer in the next six months. While the Online Pass is for something that’s all ready been created.
An even more interesting case of Online Passes shooting the publisher in the foot is that of Saints Row the Third. A game that is 90% single player, open world wonderment. These folks DO have a Season Pass and have all ready forced out a bunch of content. However, they want people to actually bother playing co-op and their silly Whored Mode! One is great, the other is a silly rip off of all the other shooter horde modes. Co-op is pretty fun, and might be worth the $10 for an online pass. But really, unless you know someone who has the game. It’s pretty pointless to even bother with it. The single player is awesomely fun and co-op is just an add-on. So they losing by making people pay. I probably would have at least tried the mode; if I was able to try it for free. But not for $10.
Finally, there are lots of ways to rectify this situation, as I’ve stated previously. But it doesn’t seem like publishers or consumers are as interested in this as they should be. And people buying the games new, probably shouldn’t be that worried. Except when the Passes expire or when they just don’t work at all. So publishers, if you are going to make us all go through this crappy Online Pass malarkey. At least make sure THE ONLINE PASSES ALL WAYS WORK!
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