January 31st, 2012
Posted in 
The online pass rared its ugly head again last week when it was reported that EA | 38 Studios Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would be including one, locking out seven single player quests. Yesterday, 38 Studios Chairman and Founder Curt Schilling took to the official Reckoning forums to explain the reason for including an online pass. Below is a little of what Schilling had to say.
“It’s clear the intent right?,” Schilling stated. “To promote early adopters and [sic] much more important to me, reward fans and gamers who commit to us with their time and money when it benefits the company.
“Every single person on the planet could wait and not buy Reckoning, the game would hit the bargain bin at some point and you could get it cheaper. 38 Studios would likely go away.”
“That’s just how business works,” he explained. “We must make a profit to become what we want to become. The only way we do that is to make games you cannot wait to buy! If we do that, and you do that, we want to reward you with some cool free stuff as a thank you.
“You can totally disagree with this and I am sure many do, so we’ll agree to disagree. This is not 38 trying to take more of your money, or EA in this case, this is us rewarding people for helping us! If you disagree due to methodology, ok, but that is our intent.
“The industry is in a very odd place. The data coming in on used game sales is not saying the things many thought it should, or would. But companies are still trying to figure out how to receive dollars spent on games they make, when they are bought. Is that wrong? if so please tell me how.”
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be available on February 7th, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Source: 38 Studios Forums, via Game Informer
Tags: 
This is exactly what the people complaining about the online pass is not understanding.
Screw the greedy totalitarianism publishers and developers. If it’s ok to rent, borrow, and buy used movies, then why is it not ok to do the same for video games??? idk about u, but I don’t like people dictating to me
@Permafrost
You’re not getting the point. It’s gonna break the game. What if 5 to 10 years from now you’re gonna decide to play the game again? By then maybe PSN or XBOX Live would probably be different (just like what happened to the Original Xbox’s online Network) and won’t won’t support old downloadable softwares or old online passes and your Xbox 360 or PS3 broke a few years back and had to buy new one.
That’s where it’s gonna get sloppy. This is only a situation, but it could happen. I play retro myself though, I still play my old games.
Isn’t this technically the same exact thing as what Batman: AC did? I recall people complaining about that too, but not to the extent that Rocksteady had to defend it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t care about online passes blocking out online content as there’s a very good reason for that, and, although blocking out SP content is taking it a bit too far, I still can’t say this type of online pass is that bad. If you know and respect the dev or enjoy the IP, you shouldn’t have a problem buying the game new.
What alot people don’t see is that, while it is efficient for gamers, the used game market is choking the industry as a whole. Games cost alot more to develope these days than they used to. The devs can’t make money off of used games and it’s wrong for gamers to expect devs to put their time and money into making top quality games when they’re refusing to support the dev by buying their games used.
Buy games new, people, or just don’t buy the game. If you’re unsure about your purchase, then either try a demo or look up reviews. If you continue buying used games, then don’t get mad when the dev wants something in return. It’s only a fair trade.
I am ok with this because of two reasons:
1.- I reaaaaally like to open my new games… taking of the plastic and removing the seal, then looking at the instruction book [not on battlefield though =/.. it's just a thin paper] and the extras [like on GTA when they put the whole city map in there]. I really love that moment. So I prefer to get my games new, a few days ago I bought a game released on 2006 and the feeling was the same.
2.- This can counter piracy, because, well… you have to access an online service [PSN, LIVE or any PC counterpart] to get a new Online Pass. I have nothing against a guy wanting to play the game, but there are demos you know.
Unfortunately it’s demos are not always available in certain regions or the developers simply decide not to release them.
There is no excuse for DRM in a singleplayer game.
end of story
Agreed.
And it takes a serious pair of balls for the gaming industry to pull this stunt during the economic downturn.
So when I purchase this sort of game does it say in big font on the package offline players get ripped off. If that’s the case I don’t care!
I agree fully with online pass why? cause im not a lame ass cheap dickhead that wont spend 10 more damn dollars or 5 more dollars to get it new, support the awesome devs, and start to force gamestop to lower theyre prices and give more credit. I bought during december almost 20 games!!! and only 4 were used why cause they were old and no longer in stock at bestbuy but the rest i got new and it feels good not to go to a gamestop and be like he man do you have assassin’s creed revelation with the original box and booklet in good condition could you please help me just to save dumb 10 bucks screw that people please quit being cheap that is why america is hated =^)
Anyone notice you need the “online pass” for the single player game? O_o
Last time I looked, I wasn’t leasing a game when I paid full price for it new at any retailer. I took sole ownership of it and can do whatever the hell I want with it.
If the gaming industry has such a hard-on for this “online pass”, they should look at a lease program of sorts. Either that or go straight to on demand. That way you have no choice but to purchase a virtual copy with no sharing rights.
Otherwise, leave the single player aspect of gaming alone. Use the “online pass” for online content only.
Oh, and if 38 Studios goes out of business, they have no one else to blame but themselves. Hell, they’re practically asking for it by their nonchalant attitude.
But I digress…
‘this is us rewarding people for helping us!’ Is there an reward? I though you just get content that’s already on the disc unlocked…
“That’s just how business works,”
Well then, you should know that that’s just how business risk as well, shouldn’t you?
The risk is: the game won’t be bought at all.
What do you think, that gamers are idiots or something?
Apart from the fact that this game sucks, even if it’d have been good I wouldn’t have bought it because of this stupid pass, and most of all because of your incredible arrogance.
I hope everybody will follow this example and won’t buy this game: we are the strong ones, we are the ones who don’t need your game, beacuse there are so many on the market, better than yours, and you cannot afford to lose us gamers, because we are the ones who give you the money.
Developers tend to forget who is in charge in the videogames market: the gamers.
Let’s remind them this.
Ok
Now where is the H2H already?!?!
DO IT NOW!!!
please =)
I completelly Disagree with that supid statement.
If your game is Good enough the game will sell well, if your company dies is just because your games suck
In the SNES-GEN era, there were not so many incomplete and buggy games as today and nobody complained against second hand sales and everybody was happy, but looks like today’s greed has gone too far and developers wants even more money. The second hand market is another one that doesnt belong to you! Is an outrage to sell incomplete games and sell us content that is already present in disc data, but anyway, as I DONY BUY OR SUPPORT ONLINE PASS GAMES, I will get this game directly into my JTAG with all dlc unlocked, as they can see, they measures just fuck the honest legal user and thats not fair.
There are few things more pathetic than people making lame excuses to defend their greedy-ness. You want to make exceptional profits? Make exceptional games!! If people buy a game used is because some do not consider it worth to keep and thus they sell it. As simple as that. This is just a recognition that Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is just not that great. And I agree with that: I played the demo, it seems to go back at least 10 years.
is it weird that I’m a fan of this developer even though I haven’t tried their game? just the way they treat their fans/consumers like adults (actually saying truthfully why they do what they do instead of drowning it in an ocean of legal mumbo jumbo that almost every other company does.) just the way he explained that makes me want to try out the game demo and then maybe buy it as well.
I find it funny that all the negative responses of “If it has an Online Pass, Im not going to buy it,” are coming from the people that were going to buy it used anyway….
Reality check…
You not buying the game used can only help the developer…