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Electronic Arts cut prices for online passes and DLC for several games on Xbox Live Marketplace, according to each product's online listings.
Items that previously retailed generally between 800 ($10) and 1,200 ($15) Microsoft points and are now free, as NeoGAF user MMaRsu pointed out in a recent thread. Discounted games (with links to their listings in the Xbox Live Marketplace) include:
- Alice: Madness Returns
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2 VIP
- Bulletstorm Online Pass
- Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner DLC
- Dragon Age 2: The Black Emporium DLC
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass
- Mass Effect 2 Cerberus Network
- Medal of Honor Online Pass
- Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed Online Pass
- Skate 3 Skate Share Pack
The discounts appear to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 versions of each game. For example, on the PlayStation Network, the Bulletstorm Online Pass is listed for $9.99 and the Mass Effect 2 Cerberus Pack is listed for $14.99, the same price as Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner.
Earlier this month, EA announced that it would discontinue its Online Pass program, which provided one-time use codes to access features like multiplayer. Those codes shipped with new games but were also available to purchase after the fact with used copies.
We've reached out to EA about the discounts to find out whether they're permanent or platform specific, and will update this story with more information as it becomes available.
Update: A representative from EA confirmed that the company is phasing out its existing Online Passes and provided Polygon with the following statement which details how the process will proceed.
"As we discontinue Online Pass for our new EA titles, we are also in the process of eliminating it from all our existing EA titles as well," the representative wrote. "We heard the feedback from players and decided to do away with Online Pass altogether.
"Players will see it first with some EA Sports titles, where a prompt to enter an Online Pass code will no longer appear in-game; with other titles we are simply making Online Passes available free of charge online.
"These are rolling updates that are taking effect over the next several weeks. We hope players continue to enjoy our games and online services for a long time to come."
