Apparently, the code was originally given to those who completed an online survey, but instead of personalized one-time-use codes for each survey taker, there was only one code, and everyone — that is, everyone in North America — could use it.
The other odd thing about this promo code was that, when used, it was applied to every $20-or-less game in a person's virtual shopping cart, not just one. (It seemed too good to be true, so I verified it. I added half a dozen $19.99 games to my cart — worth almost $120 in total — and applying the code made all of them free.) This allowed countless people to load up their carts with a dozen or more games and "buy" them all for nothing. Obviously, this was some kind of glitch, and it didn't last long. By Saturday evening, the loophole had been closed so that the promo code was only good for a single free game, as intended.
Even so, I can't even imagine how many games were accidentally given away for free during this brief period of chaos.
And while EA seemingly fixed the glitch, they didn't bother to completely deactivate the promo code at that time. Even though the code was presumably meant only for certain customers who completed a survey — and although they must have known immediately that it was being used by everyone — they allowed the code to continue working until earlier today. Perhaps it was better to let everyone get a single free game than to break their promise to the survey-takers who earned the promo code legitimately. After all, if the opportunity to grab a free game causes more people to make Origin accounts, EA gains a lot of potential future customers.
But the exploitation of this promo code wasn't over yet.
In addition to the belatedly implemented one-game limit, there seemed to be a one-use-per-account restriction. If you'd already used the code once, while logged into an Origin account, the code would be "invalid" the second time around. Of course, people quickly found other ways of getting more than one free game. The most obvious method was to make a new account in order to use the code again, but having separate accounts for each free game is far from ideal. Another method of getting additional free games involved logging out, deleting cookies, adding a game to the cart, using the promo code, removing the game from the cart, logging back in, adding the game to the cart again, and finishing the transaction. Don't ask me why this worked.
And somehow, I was even able to get two free games on one account without doing anything complicated. On Friday night, after verifying that the code could be used on multiple games at once, I created an Origin account and subsequently decided — out of kindness, I guess — to use the code legitimately, only claiming one free game. Then, on Saturday, I logged into the same account at a friend's house, and successfully used the code again with a different game. (It didn't work again with the same account at either house.) Maybe this had something to do with the change in IP address, maybe the fact that it worked twice on my account was just a fluke, or maybe the server's memory of who used the code got reset when that major glitch was fixed.
In any case, there were some limits in place — even though they didn't work perfectly — so EA clearly didn't want people using the code willy nilly. It remains to be seen, however, if those who exploited the various bugs in the system will be banned, or if their numerous free games will be taken away. Legal action, however, is almost certainly out of the question, since the widely used promo code was simply doing what EA's dopey programmers told it to do.
Regardless of what happens, the freeloaders who grabbed as many free games as possible have little to lose, since most of them were smart enough to use alternate accounts and fake names for the purpose of blatantly exploiting this enormous bug in the system. If those free games disappear, and if those dummy accounts are banned, they'll emerge unscathed, and the chance to screw with a big, evil corporation like EA will have been worth all the trouble.
As for those who didn't explicitly break the rules, getting a single $20 game for free on Origin seems like a wasted opportunity in comparison. But it's still a pretty nice deal. Or is it? Well, that depends on how much one really wants an Origin copy of a game which is already old enough to have a $20 price tag. I might not even play mine, since I'm still not sure if I really want to install Origin on my computer. It's hard to go far in a discussion of EA's Origin service without coming across accusations that the Origin client is outright spyware. Similar things have been said of Valve's Steam, but since EA has a worse reputation and Origin is still the new kid on the block, it's Origin that attracts a lot of distrust.
I've already seen plenty of claims that EA intentionally allowed this promo code to "leak" so that they could get their (allegedly malicious) Origin software on as many computers as possible. In other words, maybe it wasn't just boneheaded incompetence that led to this promo code being universal and available to everyone. While most initially assumed that it was a mistake, and that the code was supposed to be used only by a select few, perhaps it was supposed to go viral. It does seem plausible, except for the whole "infect everyone with spyware" part. More likely the goal was simply to boost the Origin userbase artificially, and to get freeloaders past the sign-up barrier in hopes that they'll come back later with full wallets.
In any case, I doubt the promo code was ever supposed to work for multiple games at once. The fact that they eventually fixed this issue indicates that it was a genuine screw-up.
As of now, it seems the promo code has stopped working entirely. I never bothered to cheat the system, since there weren't a lot of $20 games on Origin that I wanted. I probably wouldn't have gone through the hassle of creating an Origin account in the first place if I weren't curious about how the code worked. But for those who like EA's games and feel comfortable using the Origin service, this broken promo code was probably the highlight of the entire weekend.
Update #1:
Forbes contributor Erik Kain picked up on this story earlier today, as well. I won't bother linking to any other sources; you get the point.
Update #2:
I know I said I wouldn't link to any more news stories, but I think it's funny that I posted about this before Kotaku did. On the other hand, my post is hastily written garbage. On the other other hand, so is most of the stuff on Slowtaku.
Update #3:
Those who exploited the coupon code to get dozens of free games have no reason to fear any negative consequences. A community manager on the EA forums posted today that EA will honor all sales made with the coupon code. This is probably the most diplomatically sound move they could make, at this point. Revoking the games and handing out bans would just make EA look bad, since this whole thing was their own fault.
Update #4 (10/15/12):
It seems that EA's stocks suddenly jumped on Friday.
I wonder why. Could it be related to all those new user accounts that were created because of the faulty promo code? Perhaps it's due to having so many "sales" in such a short time? While I doubt it was EA's intention to allow each person to run off with a truckload of free games, it looks like they might benefit from this.
But it isn't much, in the long run. They've still been in the toilet since 2008, along with the rest of the world.
And they've been on a gradual decline for the past year. Rumors say they're dying.
But it's been a long time since EA published a game that I actually enjoyed, so good riddance.
