8 Video Games You Didn't Realise Broke The Industry

6. SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo 3 - Introduced Online Passes

SOCOM US Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo
Sony

Online passes were a relatively brief phenomenon, but they were EVERYWHERE for a time during the seventh generation of consoles. Effectively designed to kill the second-hand market, these passes made it so that every sealed game would come with a code that would give the player access to online features. Without the code, they couldn't go on multiplayer, which meant they'd have to buy the pass for an additional fee through Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network.

Online passes faced an immediate backlash upon their introduction, but publishers persisted with their use until the seventh gen ended. Ubisoft and EA were the keenest adopters, with titles like Assassin's Creed and Dragon Age both featuring online passes across a number of different entries.

For all that Ubi and EA were the worst offenders when it came to online passes, they weren't the companies responsible for their initial introduction. In actual fact, it was Sony's exclusive SOCOM series that was the first game to have an online pass, with PSP exclusive Fireteam Bravo 3 requiring a $20 fee for players to get online had they acquired the game second-hand.

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Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.