Yesterday, EA announced a new subscription service called ‘EA Access’ coming exclusively to Xbox One. Gamers will pay a monthly or annual fee ($6.99 or $39.99 AU respectively) and will have access to what EA is calling ‘The Vault’, a collection of games from their back catalogue, as well as access to 10% discounts and pre-release trials for newer games.

Yep, you read that right: You’re paying for the ability to pay less for their games. If this sounds like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Games with Gold, that’s because it’s essentially the same thing, but exclusively with EA titles.

I already pay for PlayStation Plus, and have found incredible value in the service, though the idea of paying for a second discount service has never crossed my mind. Truthfully, it still hasn’t. Games such as FIFA and Battlefield are incredibly popular, and I’m sure will be the main marketing points for EA in their campaign to get gamers to care about this service, but one thing we have to remember is that we are still paying for the games.


The best thing about PlayStation Plus and Xbox Games with Gold is that each month you are given access to a slew of free games – some old, but increasingly we are being given awesome games that are brand new to the platform – from a whole range of developers. I find the idea of having access to one publishers games for a price quite silly – and frankly it’s kind of scary. Think about one year from now, when Activision and Ubisoft have jumped on to this bandwagon as well, offer their own membership services and PlayStation Plus and Xbox Games with Gold are a shallow husk of what they used to be. Why would any of these publishers give their games away for free when they can charge the consumer for the right to pay less?

One thing to mention is that this is exclusive for Xbox One. Sony passed on the service, and were quoted as saying: ‘We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 (US) a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer”. Personally, I have to agree with Sony on this one. The only EA games that spring to mind that I would be interested in playing in the coming years would be the next Mass Effect, and if ever made, the next Dead Space – but that’s just my opinion. I know how big Battlefield, FIFA and Madden are, so if a gamer plays all of these titles it may be worth their while to pay to save a bit of money AND have access to a library of older titles.

When I say ‘older titles’ I mean those that are already available on Xbox One, as there has been no mention of whether you’ll be able to play ‘last-gen games’ with this service. Perhaps down the road, when more titles are available in ‘the Vault’ it could be worth it for me, but by then we will have access to PlayStation Now, which will grant access to multi-generation games streaming – as well as whatever competing publishers cook up to combat EA’s service.