Yesterday Microsoft and Electronic Arts announced a new, subscription-based service for the Xbox One called EA Access. EA Access is $5 a month and will be a subscription service to gain access to select EA games, as well as a chance to exclusively preview upcoming EA games. Honestly, it’s an interesting deal but definitely something that EA would be the first to do, seeing as though they’ve always been at the forefront of pushing new ways to get money from gamers for years now.
The big, glaring omission right now is that this is on Xbox One, not PS4. Well, Sony has an answer to that.
“We evaluated the EA Access subscription offering and decided that it does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect,” a Sony representative told us via email. “PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price. We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer.”
While they are talking about PlayStation Plus here, it’s hard to ignore their PlayStation Now service which is set to launch this year, which is an online, cloud-based rental system. EA Access sounds like it could be good, but it does sound like it might interfere with Sony’s services.