Battlefield 3: Online pass confirmed

If you buy a used copy of Battlefield 3, you'll need to purchase an online pass to access the game's multiplayer features.

The confirmation comes from the Twitter feed DICE designer lan Kertz (via MP1st) who was asked by a follower, "do you need to buy a new battlefield 3 to play xbox live?"

His response? "You can also purchase an online pass for a used copy."

When asked by another follower to justify the system, Kertz replied, "Because servers cost money, and used games don't make developers any money."

The inclusion of an online pass was strongly hinted at by the game's executive producer Patrick Bach earlier this year.

"The whole idea is that we're paying for servers and if you create a new account there is a big process on how that is being handled in the backend," he explained.

"We would rather have you buy a new game than a used game because buying a used game is only a cost to us; we don't get a single dime from a used game, but we still need to create server space and everything for you.

"We want people to at least pay us something to create this because we're paying for it. It was actually a loss for us to have new players. Hopefully people understand why. It's not to punish people. To us it's compensation."

Hardly a surprise, although it wont bother me as I will be buying new

It would only be a surprise if EA didnt do this on a title with MP title now. Not that it bothers me as I agree with them reclaiming some income if they are providing dedicated servers but their argument is spurious about creating server space as the old owners usage space it taken by the new owner.

That was an argument from some of the users on EG that were discussing this, although it was pointed out that although the 'old' owners wont need the server space, their profiles will still be there even if they dont own the game anymore, unless the account is deleted. So surely there will be more server space required with each new user?

Maybe but thats a database thing though surely and not a load issue...