DICE has indicated that its hotly-anticipated shooter Battlefield 3 will feature some form of online pass system.
Speaking to GamerZines, executive producer Patrick Bach said that gamers would “probably” have to register a code packaged with new copies of the military FPS to access the multiplayer component.
Despite this however, Bach wasn’t keen on simply labelling it an online pass, adding, "but I don’t think it’s an online pass, I think it’s our own backend. I’m not sure I want to call our system an online pass."
Quizzed directly if DICE was requiring that punters who buy the game second-hand must plonk down an additional cost to play online, he replied, “I think we are.”
"The whole idea is that we’re paying for servers and if you create a new account there is a big process on how that is being handled in the backend. We would rather have you buy a new game than a used game because buying a used game is only a cost to us; we don’t get a single dime from a used game, but we still need to create server space and everything for you,” explained Bach.
"We want people to at least pay us something to create this because we’re paying for it. It was actually a loss for us to have new players.”
"Hopefully people understand why. It’s not to punish people. To us it’s compensation."
Battlefield is due out in October 2011 for PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 platforms.