If they did try to charge for the games they would get enough chargebacks that they would have a hard time processing credit card payments for a while. And with chargeback penalties they might actually lose money.
The only sensible options are a) do nothing or b) revoke games purchased with these codes. If I were them I would do nothing and treat it as an unplanned pricing experiment. Since a lot of these games have an online component (network effects!) the "giveaways" might increase real sales overall.
Even if that's the case, it would be unwise for EA to pursue this money. All anyone would have to do is issue a chargeback - which by the way incurs penalty fees for EA. More than that, it costs $25 for EA to file a challenge to a chargeback, making it completely not worthwhile.
Going after this money would be a PR disaster, a legal quagmire, financially negative in all likelihood, and permanently damage their relationship with their payment processors.
I would instead invest more money in hiring proper architects.
The only sensible options are a) do nothing or b) revoke games purchased with these codes. If I were them I would do nothing and treat it as an unplanned pricing experiment. Since a lot of these games have an online component (network effects!) the "giveaways" might increase real sales overall.