THQ Expands “Online Pass” To SvR 2011

by pastapadre
Posted August 20th, 2010 at 10:32 am

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 will ship with a one-time-use code to access online play functionality. The “Online Pass” style program, which THQ has not given their own name to, debuted with UFC Undisputed 2010. However now the company has raised the cost of purchasing access to $10 for those who end up with used copies and there will now be a trial period available. For UFC 2010 it was $5 and no option for a trial period was provided.

THQ faced serious heat over the level of communication and the handling of the implementation as the program was rolled out in UFC 2010. The perception of deception spread as the company hid its existence and didn’t acknowledge it until it was actually discovered by consumers. Then the way in which it was set up resulted in some gamers paying for online access without even realizing they had the key to getting it for free. The online play for the game ended up being severely troubled which just compounded on frustrations. With SvR 2011 it appears the company has learned from the mistakes and at least is being up front with the plan.

It remains in question how successful this tactic has been thus far for EA Sports and THQ. Whether it has an effect on sales of new copies is uncertain, as UFC 2010 and Tiger Woods 11 had drastic declines but NCAA Football 11 had sales rise. Certainly though the companies are benefiting by receiving the $10 from those who purchase used copies, as they would have gotten absolutely nothing in the past from those consumers.

Tags: latest news

Quan

EA will never make me pay full price or pay an 10$ online pass for not doing so. I got hook-ups. I can play online for free and buy Madden & NCAA cheaper. Hahaha. I’ll be getting NCAA next weekend.
Arod_111

Pasta please make them stop jeez please. this is just too much
Mikeb

I think a better way of getting people to buy the games new is to provide a free mode code for new games. This way the company will get what they want (more money), and the consumers won’t feel your just money hungry at our costs.
http://twitter.com/stephensonmc Marcus Stephenson

This is exactly what’s going to happen. If you pay for a new copy, we give you some additional things for free.
Mibeb

But that should be it. You shouldn’t have to pay, the mode should be good enough.
http://twitter.com/stephensonmc Marcus Stephenson

Not understanding Mibeb — this isn’t something that we’re making you pay for extra. If you buy a new copy of the game, we’re giving you a few unlockables off the bat.
MikeyP

Fair enough….but I don’t understand when playing online became an unlockable though. IMO things like attire and Chris Masters aren’t worth purchasing a new copy. In all honesty I was considering purchasing the game used or new after a price drop if the Create a Storyline caw restrictions were removed but now I’m passing again this year.
The Albatross

Thanks for bringing this up Pasta, in regard to NCAA ’11.

There _is_ a real problem with NCAA 11′s implementation of online pass, which has gone all but ignored thus far. Title updates are required by Microsoft/Sony, but if you don’t have the latest tuner set (which you cannot get unless you have online pass), then OFFLINE dynasty mode is functionally ruined. As many people remember when Patch #2 first came out, it came out about 1 hour before the tuner set was released, and those who got Patch #2 w/o getting the tuner set saw _zero_ player progression. Literally, player progression halted to 0… It was a “glitch” but the issue hasn’t received any coverage because MOST people have online pass or access to it, so they downloaded the 2nd tuner automatically, which resolved this newly created issue.

The reality is that many people who are now buying the game used or second hand do not have online pass, yet Sony/MS mandates that they download title updates. So, while the game works fine out of the box and not downloading the patches, as soon as you download the mandatory Patch #2, progression in dynasty mode gets set to 0 without having online pass to DL the tuners.

I am not sure if EA knows about this but it would be horrific PR if it got more attention. Some people have come to my site and brought it up, at least three in the last week, so it is getting more attention… but still not widely known. Whatever has caused it, EA just didn’t think through the Online Pass issue especially in relation to mandatory updates.
Pingback: Download Software » Blog Archive » Download Software | MS WIN SVR 2008 STD ED-ROK Reviews
n1ckypyth0n

sorry if this sounds stupid but does this apply to xbox live gold members like myself im confused???