Xbox Game Pass is going to play a big role for Microsoft on Xbox Series S and Series X, and the company has now struck a deal with EA to bundle in their EA Play (formerly EA Access) subscription in with the line up of games. EA Play memberships will be added to Game Pass this holiday season, likely around the time of the next-gen launch in November.
IMPORTANT NEWS YOU SHOULD STOP SCROLLING AND READ IT THANKS
Starting later this year, @EA Play will be included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate & @XboxGamePassPC!
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— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) September 9, 2020
This isn’t entirely universal to the Game Pass subscription, though. You need to be subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for £10.99 per month, or to Xbox Game Pass for PC, which is currently £3.99 per month but will jump up to £7.99 per month at some point in future. Left out is the basic Xbox Game Pass subscription, though Microsoft would obviously like you to sign up for their all-encompassing Ultimate, which also bundles in Xbox Live Gold… and now EA Play.
Available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam or Origin, EA Play on its own is £3.99 per month or massively discounted to £19.99 if you buy a full year. It features a large library of EA’s games, going back to the late 2000s, and through to the last year or two to include FIFA 20, Titanfall 2, Need for Speed Heat and more. However, on Xbox, with backward compatibility, the EA library is larger than on PlayStation 4, so you might miss out on some PS3/360 gems there.
It’s more than just games, giving members 10-hour free trials of new titles a little in advance of their release, discounts on games to keep, and other member-only content and benefits.
That obviously joins the library of Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games on console, and PC games on PC. Microsoft have long committed to releasing all their first party titles into Xbox Game Pass on day one, whether it’s a smaller effort like Grounded or the biggest games in their line up, like Halo Infinite or Forza Motorsport.
All of this has come alongside Microsoft’s reveal of the release date and pricing of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Both will arrive on 10th November, coming in at £449 / $449 for the Series X and £249 / $299 for the lower powered, digital only Series S. However, both will be available as part of Xbox All Access, which bundles the console together with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for surprisingly reasonable monthly fees – £28.99 for Series X and £20.99 for Series S – the payments running for 24 months, after which you officially own the console and can do whatever the hell you want.
Source: Xbox
gazzagb
This is pretty impressive. I recently subscribed to PC Game Pass for Flight Sim, but since then I’ve tried out a few games I wouldn’t normally have bought. I wonder if Sony will bundle PS Now or something in with PS+? Or maybe drop that requirement entirely? Then again, it makes them too much money…