EA Labels President Frank Gibeau has told Joystiq that the company has no plans to revive its controversial Online Pass program which it recently dropped as a result of user feedback.
"It's dead, it's dead, it's deep-sixed, it's at the bottom of the Mariana Trench," Gibeau said, adding "We're not crafting a strategy to bring [Online Pass] back, you will not input codes to unlock your game, it's not going to happen."
While the Xbox One places limits on what can be done with used games and game sharing the PS4 will carry the existing PS3 DRM policy forward – allowing publishers to block the online components of used games (the single player elements of PS4 games can't be restricted and publishers can't block game lending or trade-ins on the console) – however, it seems EA has no plans to do so next-gen with Gibeau calling the Online Pass program "flat out dumb".
Gibeau added that the company's reputation was damaged by the program to the extent that the money they raised from Online Passes didn't outweigh the negative perceptions.
"The amount of money that we made, it didn't replace the amount of frustration we put on our customers and it didn't offset the reputation damage it caused the company. So we said 'it's not worth it,' and so the idea was, look, 'don't do stuff like that anymore.'"
Yesterday, EA's Patrick Soderlund said that the company will "probably" allow used games next-gen but given Gibeau's comments it seems there almost certainly won't be a block on used titles from the company.
EA COO Peter Moore has also said that the publisher has never lobbied Sony or Microsoft to limit used games adding "I am on recond as being a proponent of used games".
Earlier this week Gibeau commented that EA wants to stop being "hated".
