Battlefield 3 online pass confirmed
Surprise surprise.
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."