Yeah, this is a complete
PR stunt. They didn't make any money off online passes, so they aren't going to bother with the process of creating them and setting them up. They'll just go down a different path to try to get money.
It'll be Ultimate Team, or having to buy uniforms, or the car packs...the future will be us buying a very barebones game that will require us to spend more money to get "the complete package".
I wish I could buy a Madden game WITHOUT Ultimate Team for $40, but that'll never happen.