I would not be surprised if the games shipped with an "Activation Code" that needs to be entered in order to activate the game with an XBL account.
EA has been doing this for years, but only for online play. Madden, NHL, Battlefield, and other EA games ship new with a one-time-use "Online Pass". If you buy an EA title used, you are restricted from all online features until you pay ~30 USD for the "Online Pass".
The new system for the Xbox One is even more intrusive than EA's system considering that you cannot play a used disk offline. I was wondering why EA had killed the "Online Pass" system earlier this month; it seemed to good to be true... [1]
EA has been doing this for years, but only for online play. Madden, NHL, Battlefield, and other EA games ship new with a one-time-use "Online Pass". If you buy an EA title used, you are restricted from all online features until you pay ~30 USD for the "Online Pass".
The new system for the Xbox One is even more intrusive than EA's system considering that you cannot play a used disk offline. I was wondering why EA had killed the "Online Pass" system earlier this month; it seemed to good to be true... [1]
[1] http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/ea-kills-its-controversial...