EA Access for Xbox One will charge $4.99 a month to play four full games

I doubt EA would do that given that MS shifted their policy of sharing the gold membership.

Somebody tweeted them and they responded that its accessible to anyone on the console.

Great news!

Smart. Very smart.

The Office 365 of gaming. I think it is brilliant.

If they manage to keep it exclusively on the Xbox One, I can definitely see it as huge plus for the console. But knowing EA, they'll probably manage to screw something up. But since they're partnering with Microsoft, there's hope.

MS is doing well by securing these exclusives early on.

Take my money!

Damn good deal

Hol.e.balls

Service this, service that. No one can afford Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Beats, Xbox Music, One drive, Office 365, XBOX Live .....etc. Well hell, I can afford it but 99% of the world can't. Enough with all the services. We don't want to pay you forever for content. This is going to lead to the rebirth of Torrenting and VPN services in foreign countries. Give us a break. We already pay for Cell service and cable.

People can afford $5 a month a lot easier than they can afford buying a new EA game every few months.

What he is saying is that everything is becoming a service, so you are paying $5-$10 for each of these numerous services.  It doesn't take long before all of your subscriptions that look good at $5 a month equal $60 a month.

Which is true - but isn't that still cheaper than say - purchasing all those movies, shows, games, and songs individually?

But then you own nothing. Zip. Zilch.

Not owning movies hasn't stopped me from enjoying Netflix. I don't own books I get from the library, I still enjoy reading them (granted libraries aren't paid for through subscriptions, but we still pay for them in other ways...). As long as I have access to the content I'm paying for, I don't really care if I 'own' them or not.

Games, I don't care. I have boxload of $60 games I didn't even play for a year destined to be sold at a garage ten years from now at $5 each.

You think your going to get $5 each for your games in 10 years. That's optimistic!

Why do you need to own them? Are you planning to resell them at a profit? Stop trying to maximize profits, Zero ;P

lol borasar, nah i like to own what movies, games, and some music i play often. games though i buy and never resell. because i eventually pick them up later on and play them some more. that being said i dont buy every game out there because they dont draw my attention. while i do have netflix theres many movies netflix doesnt have. or if they do they eventually go away. so i like having my movies as well to watch when i want. and music well for me thats different. i use free pandora or the radio mostly. i do have loads of music but havent done much to my library of music since my zune hd was stolen. i wont buy a ipod either. so all in all i like to own hard copies of what i buy and i keep for the most part everything i buy in the games, music, and movies genres. im just afraid there will be a point that with all these streaming subscription things that once content gets a certain age which will vary you will be SOL to have it again.

I get his point, but I'm a fan of the service model. Putting his terrible examples aside (he lists 3 redundant music services and one drive which no one pays for), every service I subscribed to saves me a ton of money. $9 Netflix has let me drop $100+ cable. I always find Xbox live for $35 a year, and with two free games a month, I already have a backlog of games which keeps me from spending the $60+ a month on games I used to send. If I wasn't already about to get office 365 from my employer, you bet your ass I'd be getting one of the $70 year subscription deals I see from amazon. That's full current office and 1TB one drive storage for 5 people! It wasn't too long ago that I had to pay about $400 to get office 2003 that was required by my college.

You couldn't get a student discount for Office?

All university students in the U.S. can now get Office 365 University with 1TB of OneDrive for like $80 total for four years of service.

I pretty much look at these games as services anyway. For $29 a year, it is a bargain if there is one game in there you would like. I don't care if I own Battlefield 4 when Battlefield 5 comes out. Those online games get their servers dropped after a number of years anyways, so their re-playability goes to zero at that point along with their value. Nobody says you have to buy into the subscription. EA can't force people into the subscription model. It just doesn't scale well. If every publisher were to force that sort of thing, it would fall apart. But if I just wanted to play the campaign of Battlefield 4 one month and could do so for $5, that would be a bargain in my book.

I, who hates DRM and will not buy movies on XBOX VIDEO or any other service that doesn't offer Ultraviolet approve this message. I think it's Great Deal. I buy the new FIFAS every year. So, being able to not only play that game, but others in EAs Catalog is F-ing Great Deal!

Couldn't have said it better.

Xbox music, Netflix, and I'm giving Marvel Unlimited a shot. I cancelled Hulu plus but I'm reconsidering for the fall. I'm getting swamped in subscription services!

LOL I know how you feel. I had to break up with Hulu plus as well. Good service but I just had too much. Netflix and crunchyroll is all I need. Oh and Xbox music.

That's actually good though. When it comes to games I eventually get bored of then and move on to something else. $5/month for a year = 1 Madden game... With this you get many games and can cancel when you get bored.

It's only $30 per year

All together costs less than cable. Cut the cord :)

Well u just mentioned 3 music services. Why not just pay for 1? I don't pay for any and just download my music. Also, why don't u share memberships with people? I do this with Hulu/Netflix. We just swap access info and each pay for 1 service.

So what your saying is everyone should illegally download music and illegally share 1 video account to get cheap content like yourself?   No thanks

Ok, let me chime in. #1 these are just some popular examples I've mentioned. #2 notice you can't get access to all the content you typically want if you only subscribe to one service in a category. Example Netflix doesn't have all the content you want. It might have most but you still miss out on a lot of shows exclusive to Hulu and you get no Live Sports or premium cable shows. When you own it you have access to exactly what you want. Maybe with the service you have access to content you didn't know you wanted, but we all know how to get the content service or no service. #3 if you add up the cost of a tv & video service, music service, game service, premium online storage, office online, Book service plus the internet plan your entire content life is now forever tied to, the ownership model isn't looking so bad. I'm not saying services are bad. I have half of these services now. What I am saying is that you are a late payment to your internet provider from having no music, movies, books, games, online storage or productivity software. Basically, you just placed your entertainment life in the hands of Comcast, Charter, At&t, Verizon and a few other companies that all made the top 10 worst companies in America. God be with us. Services are like T-Mobile not charging music data against your data plan. It sounds great in theory until prices go up, content becomes more exclusive to individual services and bandwidth restrictions start getting mentioned.

So this kind of like an all digital GameFly, but only for EA games.

But imagine the potential here. If this works out for them, what's to stop other companies from doing it. I pay Gamefly $25 a month for two games. If ubisoft, Activision and anyone else you can think of made a service like this, we could all choose the companies we want to pay and save a ton of cash. I'll give this a try when it becomes available. I haven't tried the service myself so it might not be all it's cracked up to be.

This sounds good, but I'll wait until they make the final decisions on the outcome of the benefits along with the price range.

You know that Fry meme with "here take my money!"? Well that's how I feel about this. I would never buy these games on their own, but hell I can swing $5 a month and get enough play to justify it. :) brilliant.

"Shut up and take my money!" Is actually how it goes :)

Very nice

Do we get to choose the games? Not sure about this with EA doing it

I wonder the same thing. I would only be interested in FIFA out of the list mentioned, and maybe a little interest in Madden. If you could choose between different games it would be great. Maybe they could lock your selection in for a sweet time to make it more worth their efforts, i.e. Once you choose one game you keep it for for months, and than you can get a different title...

I like your thinking

Ahem... You can quit at any time? A subscription is SO much better than a contract. Sometimes. =P

This is awesome :D

Awesome awesome

A little confused. What do I get for my $5?

Fifa 14, Madden 25, battlefield 4 and peggle 2 for now..

So this is a monthly subscription to play those games...not a $5 fee required on top of already owning those games? Ok...i guess I miss read it. Was going to say this was ubsurd.

And a 10% discount on EA games and DLC. Also you get two hour demo access to games a week before they come out, in which your progress will transfer to the full game if you decide to purchase it.

That's cheap. Will get it for Madden and Battlefield.

Same here.

To me, this is PERFECT for sports games.  All sports games lose most of their value within a year (literally almost all).  Because resale value isn't a concern, who cares you don't have access to the games after you stop the service.  Even $60 a year would be awesome if you are a sports nut and buy 1-4 EA sports games a years.

Great point re sports games

This has potential to be a major money maker and something I'd be ready to dive into immediately. Of course, their will be some who hate the subscription based model of services, but I'm one who loves them. The savings (if your smart about the ones you chose) can be in the hundreds to thousands. For example, Xbox Music Pass for me saves me hundreds of dollars. I'm a HUGE music person and listen/purchase everything. Previously, in my iOS days, a Tuesday filled with good music releases would cost me around $40-$50, about twice to three times a month. You do the math. For $10 a month, I can get access to whatever I want and for as along as I want. Plus, I'll never stop buying/listening to music, so that's a win win. If EA manages to have a good catalog of games, say NBA Live, Madden, FIFA, Battlefield, etc etc. Then $30 a year I an absolute deal. Each of those games would cost at least $50 maybe $40. Buy all of then and your close to $200 dollars in the hole. Plus, the sport titles are only good for each year and others like Battlefield. Plus, Gamestop will only give you back pennies on the dollar, if you trade in a full priced game. What's better? $30 a year or $200+ in one shot (if you were buying multiple games)? At that price (EA's subscription) you'd have those games for over 5 years, which is a very long time in the game world. So, all I see I money being saved. Sign me up!

So you can play these 4 games as much as you want all for 5$ a month? And you dont even have to buy the whole games?!?!?! That's awesome

I'd rather my games be "mine", than being pay2play. There are some months when I don't even play anything because I don't feel like it, why pay for that?

There are some years when i dont even play the old sports games, why pay for a lifetime of usage if they have a built in obsoletion date? EA releases yearly updates to these sports games, buy just madden or just fifa or just battlefield and you already could have played all of them for half the price of one. Not to mention you take a game to eb to trade after a year and it is worth next to nothing.

Let's keep in mind that these are all four old games.  It includes Madden 25, which is last year's version, and not Madden 15, the one coming out in August.  If they commit to putting in newer titles this deal would be huge, but at $30 a year I just don’t see that happening promptly.

This exactly.  If they offer Madden 15 on the release date as part of this program than it's an incredible deal but if they make you wait a few months before adding new games to the subscription (which I'm guessing they will) than it really loses a lot of value.

And the value is about $30 a year.

Still a he'll of a lot cheaper then actually buying these games, although I am sure it will be a lot more expensive here, if it even comes to my region that is.

Very smart

I guess if it will delay the shutdown of those games servers then bonus. Speaking of stuff like this I herd someone mention that gwg games now requires gold to continue playing. It sounds more of a xb1 restriction then a 360 restriction

$29.99 a year? Sign me up!

Zero interest whatsoever in this, however exclusive features and services are only good for the platform, so glad to see it.

As a business model, it's a genius idea. As a consumer, hell no. Problem is that it may sound cheap at first, but people tend to forget where they sign up for automatic charges and eventually when they do remember, they would've already paid a lot more than they would if they just bought a game.

That's better than buying the game at 60$ only to find out you played 5 times within the month and then stopped

Or buying tons of games on Steam, just because they were on sale and never playing most of them

You are forgetting that after playing 5 times, you can always sell it for $40 or $50. I always sell mine after I get bored and usually lose only $10-15.

Which if they were the EA games above would have covered 2-3 (4) months of monthly subscriptions or 4-6 (8) months of the yearly subscription.

Now multiply that $10-15 by 4. You now have $40-60 of losses. So with a yearly subscription, you now save $10-30. You just made the point.

But when games are added to it, you easily save money if you normally just buy one EA game a year; assuming games are regularly added as they are released.

Can you download the games? or are they playable by streaming? If you can download them and only need to connect once to validate the subscription then its a good offer, if this needs a constant Internet connection then I will pass it.
 

Its downloading the games. You aren't streaming the games. XBOX One doesn't support streaming games (at least currently and they haven't really made noise about adding that feature in the future).

That's a great idea for sports games that change each year

That sounds pretty nice actually. I don't think I play that many EA games for that long either.

Hope this works with their new titles, like the new FIFA, etc.

Can you play these games online with this package?

Yes

This is going to give the Xbox One a massive boost, especially as EA have so many yearly titles like FIFA, Battlefield, Madden, and more... and i know so many people who buy those games, year after year, after year... and while you think this will lose EA money, it won't... because its pushing people to digital, and it removes those games from the second hand market entirely... also the DLC will make them an absolute fortune on top of that! Still I'm very impressed, and will surely be signing up as soon as i can... amazing value, and it makes PS Now look really laughable :')

They probably take your gamer score after your subscription ends

I'm In.

This seems to have success written all over it, can't wait!

That's actually not a bad plan. Wow, me complimenting EA is rare.

I quite like it, especially for $29.99 for the year. Hope it comes to the UK.

Heres what I think is the "catch" They will only give you the games that are older that not many people are buying I.E. Madden 15 comes out next month, so EA Access will have Madden 25 to play. Then when Madden 16 comes out, shortly before it releases, they will make Madden 15 available to this subscription. So on and so on.  So really you would have to wait a long time before a title gets on the playable list. They would never add all the bran new games at such a low price. EA loves taking money, and this would be uncharacteristic of them to offer such a HEAVY discount on BRAND new games. 

All maddens are the same ...but yeah the games wont be brand new but still good. And 10% off any purchase. And early access to games before anyone else. For $30 a year.

Definitely buying an Xbox One for myself as a Christmas present this year. Hopefully WalMart layaway will start again.

This is an interesting idea, but I'll wait until the other games available get announced. I'd pay $30/year for a decent lineup, but not a near-replacement football and soccer pairing, a ho-hum indie title, and the buggiest game of 2013 (if not the decade).

Only interesting if they as their newest games to the program

Cannot wait for this get to the UK Glad see they have said it will (will Europe) This is EA though and this sounds too good to be true

Not bad, although I'd only be interested in one of those games but still a good price. No word on date?

It will be interesting to see how they manage this... even a set of year old games would save you some money and might get people who wouldn't necessarily buy the game at launch to subscribe. I'm a little more surprised that they haven't gone ala carte with, at the very least, their sports games yet. For example Madden: you get 1 half of play in local scrimmage mode with any team as free download, $5 gets you the full local scrimmage mode with any team, $5 more gets you online scrimmage mode with any team, $1.99 gets you full season + post season play for a single team (times however many teams you want to play a season through), $1.99 for classic teams (could create an unlimited number of these), $5 for other features like management mode, tournament mode, etc...

WPCentral ...your headline sucks for this... bad

Plants Vs Zombies, Garden Warfare. Awesome game :) Completely off topic. Just sayin'

Nice so I can play a fee games affordably..

All ea did was make there old premium service for there sports game....when madden 13 came out ea had this program you can play all there sports game 5 days in advance and when the game came out all things you did and achievement's become unlocked all there doing is giving this access to all there games

This is awesome on EA's part. People like myself buy madden almost every year so a subscription like this would save me a whole lot of money.

This is a great deal especially for those people who buy Fifa, Madden etc every year.

I've just had a email from MS telling me about this and it's coming to Xbox one beta testers very soon, sounds almost like its in this months beta. Also I'm a UK beta tester, which surprised me as I thought this might be one of those US beta only things.

I just got the same email, told me i would be getting a message on Xbox soon :D
I read on their site that its United States or North America, EU and Australia.
 

Also just got an email invite into the beta. Can't wait to download the app and give this a spin. Been actually thinking about buying BF4, now can play it with the subscription.

I'm already an EA Access member!

Just downloaded BF4. Premium is $33.49 with the subscription :O I own BF4 on pc too but never play because i only have one map pack..Premium on pc is still pricey

Haa

Open new site 'Xboxcentral.com' ;)