[Source: IGN towards the end of the article]

It looks like every new copy of Madden will come with a code used to setup your onine franchise.  No code, no online franchise:

I wonder if they will sell new codes on the PSN and Xbox Live.

This seems like an interesting idea, I'm not sure how much I support it though. I'll be interested to see how well it takes off and if they do offer codes for download, what price they will set them at.

On one hand, it's nice to see publishers thinking of ways to work with the used game market, on the other hand I could see this completely screwing over the used game market.

I generally buy Madden games every other year and it's a guaranteed I'm going to sell my previous one and it will likely be before I have it for a year. If I can't sell mine to Gamestop, I don't know if I'll buy it in the first place.

Reminds me of a CDkey for PC games. Sell them online, get a cdkey cracker to give you a code, somehow it will still have used sales playing online.

I don't think people have cracked DLC preorder codes yet and I don't think they're gonna.  This is pretty much one of those so it's a fairly safe assumption that if you want an online franchise, you have to buy the game new or pay more for another code.

Will this still work for you if you swap out the hard drive, change console (e.g. repair service) or play through backwards compatibility on a future console? The usual problem with restrictions like this is that it interferes with legitimate activity too (not that used games are illegal).

Publishers have every right to battle the used games market. I say, so long as they don't mess with people who keep the game, that is fine. The idea is to give people reasons to both hold onto their old games and also upgrade.

That's a good question about the hard drive switch, I hadn't thought of that.  How does things like that work for other DLC codes?

As for backwards compatibility for the future, I would imagine the online community for these games die two years its release since a good number of people that buy these games either buy them every year or every other year. 

Seems to be one of those games that's combative against re-sale anyway. Games with a strong local multiplayer component, and games that appear on the market quite frequently, generally aren't the type to really fall prey to this

They should do this for all the games.

Rather than treating used game purchasers like garbage, why don't publishers try to legitimately add value to the game to encourage people to hold onto the game for weeks/months/years after the game releases?

It may not be easy or inexpensive for all genres but it would be (far) more successful than punishing potential customers.