I remember that blog and that incident well. Even back then there was some consumer backlash because of there being a VIP Pass being used, along with some lanuch hiccups with some codes not working or not even being printed.
I too forsake AC until I learned that the GOTY Edition would have all the content minus the VIP Pass. it makes me wonder if that was their intention all along or if they had to remove the ViP Pass to ensure the game actually sold after the problems during launch. After all Ninja Gaiden III: Razor's Edge on the PS3/Xbox 360 still has the original ONline pass the vanilla version had.