Microsoft has agreed to bring EA's Access to Xbox One consoles and announced that the subscription service's brief beta period is already underway -- EA Access offers an assortment of EA's latest games for $5 per month, but Sony says that's not a good deal.
The games available for unlimited play in EA Access' beta period include FIFA 14, Madden NFL 25, Peggle 2 and Battlefield 4. More games were said to be inbound for EA Access' beta period and beyond.
"At EA, we are always looking for new ways to make it easier for gamers to play more EA games across all platforms, and we are excited about what EA Access will offer to players on Xbox One," stated EA.
Sony decided not to take EA up on bringing the optional Access service to the PlayStation 4, reasoning that EA's subscription plan didn't offer enough value for PS4 players, a Sony spokesperson said to GameInformer.
"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," stated the Sony spokesperson. "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."
Whether Sony truly thought its customers would rage at another affordable option to play games or the PlayStation-maker wanted to protect its own subscription service from competition, the repudiation of EA could shake a rift between the two companies.
EA has released several of its best-selling games into Sony's PlayStation Plus subscription service, though none have made it onto the PS4 yet. After a fallout with Valve, EA famously terminated the release of its games onto the beloved Steam, Valve's digital distribution, and created Origin.
While Sony said it doesn't think its customers would appreciate EA access, despite the absence of EA games on PS Plus for PS4, EA's subscription service appears to be a nice compliment to Microsoft's Games with Gold subscription service. So far, GwG has released five games for the Xbox One and PS Plus has offered 15 games for the PS4.
EA Access has launched in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States. EA said Access would reach more country soon.
EA said Access subscribers will be granted early access to upcoming games with as much as five days of leeway before release dates.
