Sony Turning to PSN Pass

By Matt Mann / July 7, 2011

PSN Pass, after pictures surfaced yesterday on a German website showing a Resistance 3 cover with a clear graphic for it. Sony had this to say:

"We are always evaluating new programs for our online offering, and starting with Resistance 3 this September, we will be instituting a network pass program for PS3 games with online capabilities," the spokesperson said. "This program will be game-specific. Games that are a part of this program will include a single-use registration code that grants the account holder redeeming the code full online access for that title."

The PSN Pass will be very similar to the passes that both EA and Ubisoft use. These passes are codes that must be entered to access the multiplayer options on games, so people who buy them used will not be able to access the multiplayer options. Unless of course they are willing to pay a for an access code from EA, Ubisoft, or now the PSN store. To say this is not a popular program would be putting it mildly. I understand wanting to curb used game sales, however do these companies have any proof that most of the sales they lose is on multiplayer based games? For example, in most cases with multiplayer games you see the amount of people playing online generally decreases as the game gets older and further away from its release date. So where exactly do these companies get the idea they are losing money mostly on multiplayer games? (Some games are different like the Call of Duty and Battlefield series where there is constantly high number of players). If anything gaming companies probably lose more money from single player used game sales than multiplayer game sales. We will have to wait and see how many game companies will start to use this new Sony PSN Pass. Have these online passes ever deterred you from buying a used game or caused you to buy a game new when you actually wanted to buy it new?