Good news to those of us who own games, or who plan on owning games, made by EA that contain an online pass. EA is moving to phase out the online pass model completely. EA has stated "As we discontinue Online Pass for our new EA titles, we are also in the process of eliminating it from all our existing EA titles as well. We heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether."

This generation has seen a variety of change occur on the gaming landscape with the introduction of microtransactions, the mass appeal of DLC, the rise of game prices, and the controversial "online pass system." At least one of those things are changing for the time being, with EA announcing it's no longer going to require an online pass for its games.

Games used to be all about buying a copy off the shop shelf and taking it home, unwrapping the ridiculously tight plastic and smelling the manual.  Those days are increasingly over as games can be accessed digitally.  In theory, this should lead to a seamless buying to playing workflow; unless the game is SimCity and you need to be connected to the EA servers at all times to play.  Servers that are currently not working very well...

Nick was the only one who made it into the EA Press Conference so he gave us his before and after thoughts on the publisher's presser. Coming from the Orpheus theatre, EA had quite the show coming out in full force with their bread and butter titles. 

Electronic Arts just held their press conference this afternoon and there wasn't a ton of specific co-op titles to come out of the Orpheum Theatre. One game that was shown that we are clamouring for more information about is the new Sim City from Maxis. The game looks stunning and the new aethestic seems more designed than any of the previous titles, giving players a more tacticle feel than the usual dry user interface. No details were given on how players would interact with each other, but it looks as though there is some form of co-op in the upcoming city simulator.

Welcome to another installment of Beyond Co-Op, where we look "beyond co-op" and bring you some of the gaming news that doesn't necessarily revolve around cooperative play. This week, we have an assortment of topics and quotes that revolve around the event of E3 (not necessarily this one) and of the gaming industry’s predicted future.

Last week we broke the news that the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 would require two discs. This week we find out why (and we discuss Andrew Gaskill's punishment for his comments about chubby PlayStation 3 gamers).

EA Games' label president Frank Gibeau has made a bold statement, basically saying that, the single player only experience is not in the Electronic Arts portfolio moving forward.  "Online is where the innovation, and the action, is at.  It's not only about multiplayer, it's about being connected," he said, "I firmly believe that the way the products we have are going they, need to be connected online. Multiplayer is one form of that." 

The stories for this week:

The stories for this week:

  Earlier, we heard wind of an Army of Two sequel coming down the tubes. Now, it seems that Electronic Arts will capitalize further on the underappreciated co-op game with a movie. Universal Pictures will distribute the big-budget film, and is fast-tracking to start full production in 2009, with Scott Stuber producing in the first partnersh...