SSX’s online pass is surprisingly unrestrictive

Considering that Electronic Arts is apparently in love with online passes, requiring them for just about every game released over the past year, it should come as no surprise that SSX will also have an online pass.

What is surprising is how relatively light the online pass actually is. Shortly after the news made the rounds, EA sent out a statement to Game Informer, detailing just how it will work and, rather than going the usual route of locking out used game purchasers from online mutliplayer, SSX will instead take a different approach.

In SSX, players without an Online Pass are able to compete and play in both of SSX’s online game modes, Explore and Global Events with no restrictions. In Global Events, the top finishers from each event are awarded with in-game credits. These in-game credits earned during play will not be awarded to the player if they do not have an Online Pass; these credits will be stored so that at any time, if a player redeems an Online Pass code, all the credits that they had previously earned in Global Events will be immediately awarded to them.

It’s good that EA is going with something far less restrictive for SSX, but it also comes off as a bit odd to me considering that this news follows word that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, another EA-published title, will have an online pass, despite having no online mode whatsoever. What’s worse, used game purchasers will be locked out of an entire quest line’s worth of content, which the developer attempted to justify by saying that said quest line was originally planned to be DLC.

You’re confusing, EA. You’re confusing.

Source: Game Informer