EA has this year been trying a variety of experiments in order to ensure players of its games buy the publisher’s titles new at retail, rather than second-hand or even through playing them through rental. The company’s main trick so far has been to include codes in the retail boxes of its games that users are able to enter online in order to access downloadable content released after the launch of the game in question.

So far, we’ve seen free content being delivered in this way for Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, amongst others, but now that EA seems comfortable that the experiments may be working, this method of rewarding gamers for an original purchase of the company’s games is set to be extended to all EA Sports titles on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the future in the form of the ‘Online Pass.’

In EA Sports titles, starting in June with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, EA will include a game-specific (title, not disc), one-time use registration code with every title, in the box. This code will represent your Online Pass for that game, and will give you access to multiplayer online play, the ability to participate in and download user generated, get bonus downloadable content for your games, and other features including “group features like online dynasty and leagues.”

If you happen to purchase a used copy, and don’t get the registration code for your Online Pass, the above-mentioned features will be available to you for a fee of $10 (after a free 7 day trial to see if you’re willing to pay up).

If you choose not to pay the $10 for an Online Pass, you won’t gain access to online multiplayer for that game. In a blog post at EA Sports.com, Senior Vice President of World Wide Development at EA SPORTS Andrew Wilson commented on this move, saying:

“In order to continue to enhance the online experiences that are attracting nearly five million connected game sessions a day, again, we think it’s fair to get paid for the services we provide and to reserve these online services for people who pay EA to access them.

“In return, we’ll continue to invest in creating great games and offer industry-leading online services to extend the game experience to everyone. I don’t think even the harshest cynic can argue with that and instead I think fans will see the value we’re committing to deliver when they see all the services, features and bonus content that is extending the life of their products.”

EA Sports head Peter Moore commented on this new approach:

“This is an important inflection point in our business, because it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhance premium online services to the entire robust EA Sports online community.”