No one seems to be talking about why publishers have skipped the online pass in the first wave of releases for the Wii U. Some have suggested that it all comes down to Nintendo and the fact that Nintendo was not ready when the decision was made whether to integrate the online pass into the Wii U versions. As a result, at least the first wave of Wii U games is missing the Online Pass Codes.
When publishers were asked why there are no Online Passes in the Wii U versions, they seemed to repeat that an Online Pass was not necessary to play the Wii U versions of their titles. When asked if they would be using the Online Pass in the future, it seems that no publisher would comment on that or whether this is something they will be doing in the future.
We suspect that the Wii U will end up with titles that have the Online Pass in them in the near future.