Yesterday's announcement of Electronic Arts' EA Access program was notable for being the first such subscription-based game download plan from a third-party publisher on this generation of consoles. But it was also notable for the fact that the subscription is only available on the Xbox One and not the PlayStation 4 (or on PC via Origin, for that matter). Today, Sony is suggesting that it doesn't think EA's subscription plan is as good a value as its own PlayStation Plus offerings.
“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 Game Informer. "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."It's true that PlayStation Plus is an incredible value as far as these kinds of subscriptions go. Players who have subscribed since the service was first rolled out in 2010 would today have access to hundreds of downloadable games across all of Sony's hardware, at a total cost of around $200 so far and with the promise of multiple new games every single month going forward (Microsoft's more recent Games With Gold has been a little less generous). EA Access, on the other hand, currently only gives access to four of EA's older games for $30 a year, with no guarantees about which titles will be added in the future or how long after release those titles will be available via the "Vault." Since the program is limited to EA titles, it seems unlikely that its selection will ever be nearly as extensive as something like PlayStation Plus.
On the other hand, Sony's statement could be a "sour grapes" rationalization over not getting EA's cooperation on its platforms. Both EA and Microsoft has trumpeted their "special relationship" in the recent past, and EA's major release of Titanfall this year was exclusive to Microsoft platforms, not to mention the exclusive "Ultimate Team" content on the Xbox versions of recent FIFA games. EA Access' Xbox exclusivity may have grown out of this same relationship, or possibly involved some sort of payment on Microsoft's part. (In a statement, Microsoft told Ars "We're committed to making sure the Xbox platform is the best place to play games and will continue to seek out opportunities to bring the best games and content to our fans, but we do not disclose details of publisher agreements and have nothing else to share at this time.")
In any case, the Xbox One's exclusive on-ramp to EA Access could be a major selling point for some gamers, especially fans of EA's annual sports releases. The value still depends on the details of the implementation, specifically how generous EA is with making its recent releases available for free going forward.
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