Just about any Xbox Game Pass subscriber will tell you what an amazing service Microsoft’s managed to build. Whether you’re on console or PC, you access to over 100 games for a fairly reasonable monthly fee. Xbox Game Pass is clearly the future of Xbox. It is going to play a big part in how Microsoft approaches the next generation.
And still, Microsoft apparently thought it could use a little more “oomph.”
Microsoft and EA announced yesterday that EA Play — the service formerly known as EA Access — will become a part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass for PC this holiday. What does that mean? Essentially, the entirety of EA’s back catalog — save for the newest games — will be available on Xbox. And a large portion of EA’s older titles (and some non-EA games) will be available on PC.
There’s a reason games like Titanfall 2 never hit Game Pass: EA has its own service. Now that EA Play is officially part of the Ultimate subscription and the standard tier on PC, that changes. If you’re already an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, this is amazing news.
If you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber on PC, however, the deal is bittersweet. Microsoft plans to increase the cost of Xbox Game Pass for PC on Sept. 17, pushing the monthly fee from $4.99 a month to $9.99 a month. Getting Game Pass for roughly $5 was a steal for sure. But with the price increase — and when considering the fact that EA Play only costs $3.99 per month — PC players will end up paying around $10 for two services that, when combined, only used to cost $9. That might sting a little.
Still, that’s $5 less than console players have to pay in order to access EA Play, so perhaps PC players are making out in the end. And with xCloud set to pop up at any moment, some PC players might even feel compelled to pay $15 a month for Game Pass Ultimate, even if they don’t own an Xbox.
There’s no word yet on when exactly EA Play will join Xbox Game Pass — all we have now is the holiday window. As soon as we can get a solid launch date, we’ll clue you in.