EA, Sony, THQ and other game publishers are free to do what they want with this Online Pass stuff. They found a legal loophole to the first-sale doctrine (digital distribution) and they are exploiting it. That doesn`t mean that consumers aren`t entitled to voice complaints though. What kind of consumer wants to pay more money than they are already paying for products and services? lol. The gaming companies have every right to try this and consumers have every right to complain about it. What REALLY matters in the end is whether this Online Pass will actually result in increased revenue for EA, Sony, THQ and other game companies who implement it. That remains to be seen.
Here is my prediction of how this will all go down. New game sales may see some of a boost from used gamers who decide to buy new now instead of buying used. And these companies will gain revenue from used gamers who decide to buy the online pass instead of buying new (which is gonna happen. Because GameStop and sellers are going to lower the prices of their used games to compensate for the fact that used copies are going to be less valuable to gamers now. Instead of used copies going for $54.99 at GameStop, they`ll be $44.99 now to compensate for the $10 pass). And some renters may bite on the Online Pass.
HOWEVER, on the flip side of things, since trade-in and resale values of games are going to go down because used copies dont have online included, gamers will receive less money for every game they trade-in and resell. As a result, gamers who trade in or resell on eBay and what not will have less money to buy new games! So it`s unclear whether the Online Pass actually will lead to increased revenues for the gaming industry. Whatever they make from used gamers and renters, they may very lose from gamers who buy less new games because they don`t have as much trade-in and resale money as they used to.
