EA have caused a mixed response recently after announcing their EA Access Pass, a subscription service priced at $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year. I’m going to begin by mentioning the one specified exclusion from this deal is Titanfall. Sorry players.
The service offers access to a variety of EA titles, including FIFA 14, Peggle 2, Madden NFL 25 and Battlefield 4 with more being added to the mix in the future.
Additional benefits of the subscription are a 10% discount on other digital EA products and access to trials of upcoming games up to five days before release. In my opinion this seems to be the most promising aspect of the Access Pass. The game trials that will be made available have currently been named as:
- Madden NFL 15
- FIFA 15
- NHL 15
- NBA Live 15
- Dragon Age: Inquisition
Your gaming progress while playing through these trials can also be transferred over into the full game, should you decide to purchase the full title.
Comments on the EA blog were quick to enquire about the Playstation being included in this deal, however Sony seemed to have quashed this possibility after speaking with Game Informer.
We evaluated the EA Access subscription offering and decided that it does not bring the kind of value Playstation customers have come to expect.
Further comments were added discussing Sony’s own subscription service. Playstation Plus memberships, which are available across multiple platforms have increased by over 200% following the launch of the PS4. Overall it was clear that Sony failed to see value for money in EA’s offer. Each to their own, of course. Time will tell if the move will be popular among EA gamers, a group who have previously proven to harbor a fair amount of indignation for the gaming giant.
EA Access Pass will be made available via Xbox Live, Amazon, Gamestop and EB Games.
