By now, most of you in the know have probably heard about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's inclusion of the now-standard online pass. It is still a bit weird to see it in a single-player focused game but it happens more and more now. The online pass for Amalur promises a full quest line that can only be gotten by buying the game new (or buying a pass with a used copy).
When asked about their inclusion of the pass, community manager Muse said that the pack had been developed with intents of being sold after the game's release and was not content simply culled from the disc. Instead of selling the quest line, they decided to give it to new purchasers for free. That would make it a bit less sleazy but CM's live to spin good press. Not sure I believe it as of yet. More likely, EA demanded an online pass and they scrounged up some content to meet the demand.
I'm still a bit annoyed whenever I see this happen. Does it really make sense to put an online pass in a single-player game that lacks any multiplayer? What about those people who don't have a Live account and only play those single-player games? Of course, we know why it happens - publishers like their money, after all.
I still wish that they could come up with something that doesn't require me to punch in a code before I can even start playing (especially when it's just a 200KB unlock key). Playing some new games is an exercise of patience after entering any pre-order bonuses, retailer specific bonuses, online passes, and day-one DLC included within. Add in the always necessary day one patch and it can take several minutes to get into a game. I just want to play my new games dammit!
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