Publishers Adding $10 Fee to Play Used Games Online

This month Ubisoft and Sony joined the growing number of publishers who plan to start charging extra to play copies of used games online. Not every game...not yet. But Sony, Ubisoft, THQ, Electronic Arts, and Warner Bros. are all testing the waters for their own flavor of "online passport".

Here's how it works (in general): New games will comes with a code has to be used to play the game online. The code is free; it never runs out. But it's also one-time use—one code per online account. That means if you buy the game used, and if the previous owner played that game online, you will have to spend an extra $10 to get a new code if you want to play it online, too.

So what?
For starters, it means that the game you buy loses value not just with wear but because you're unable to pass along the full experience when you're done with it. (Imagine a car manufacturer designing a car that once sold used no longer has functioning passenger seats—and can only be driven in your driveway.)

It's also a reminder of the increasingly intangible state of video game ownership these days. As the industry shifts from selling games on a discs in boxes to selling games sent over the Internet to your console, it's a good idea to clutch onto what few rights as consumers we have. If we're not careful, soon you won't own any piece of a video game. You won't be able to sell it, lend it to a friend, or give it to your son. Maybe you won't even be able to play it a second time.

Here's a look at some of the current slate of games that lose online playability once they pass to a new owner.