EA Access Opens To All Xbox One Owners With Xbox LIVE Gold For One Week
Xbox One owners interested in Battlefield, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Plants vs. Zombies and other Electronic Arts titles should check out EA Access out starting today, January 19. The Netflix-like subscription service for games is free for Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers for the next week as part of its Free Play Days promotion.
Those interested in trying out EA Access can get started by downloading the EA Access Hub app from the Xbox Store. It is also prominently displayed on the Xbox One home dashboard in the top right corner, reserved for Xbox LIVE Gold member offers.
Downloading the hub app will grant access to all EA games in the Vault for free, at no additional cost. The list of games currently available includes: Battlefield Hardline, EA Sports UFC, Battlefield 4, FIFA 15, Madden 25, Dragon Age: Inquisition, NHL 15, Titanfall, Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, Need for Speed Rivals, NBA LIVE 15, Peggle 2, FIFA 14, and Madden 14.
The EA Access promotion lasts from Tuesday, January 19, through Sunday, January 24. Xbox One owners interested in keeping it will have the option to buy a year’s subscription for $29.99, or they can purchase a monthly subscription for $4.99.
Want to check out The Vault? Get ready for Free Play Days, beginning Jan. 19. https://t.co/wx94AEbFAz pic.twitter.com/u1M05oNfF6
— EA Access (@EAAccess) January 17, 2016
Expect more games to be added to the Vault in the future. The current cadence is for an Xbox One game to be added approximately six months to a year after release. Electronic Arts is also exploring the possibility of adding backwards compatible Xbox 360 titles.
Additional EA Access benefits include 10 percent off the purchase of Electronic Arts-published games and DLC, as well as a chance to try out soon-to-be-released games early for 10 hours. For example, Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, Unravel, and EA Sports UFC 2 will all be available to try on the Xbox One before they are released. Any progress earned in those games during the trial period will carry over to the full release.
EA Access has turned into an incredibly popular and profitable service for Electronic Arts. During its Q2 2016 earnings call on October 29, 2015, CEO Andrew Wilson described EA Access as “accelerating,” with the subscriber base doubling in the two previous quarters. Digital revenue for the company during the quarter was $83 million. It’s unknown how much of that was from EA Access, but the company stated it is delivering “strong, sustained growth.”
Members can try Unravel before the game is released. More details: https://t.co/0ieFpaaiJQ pic.twitter.com/TuxE2zWuhO
— EA Access (@EAAccess) January 15, 2016
It will be interesting to see how much more that growth continues through efforts like the free week trial. EA Access offers a solid starter lineup of games for new Xbox One owners. Additionally, Electronic Arts recently announced a PC version of the service through Origin called, appropriately enough, Origin Access.
Origin Access features the same benefits and price as EA Access. The one difference is the selection of games is slightly altered to include PC-centric titles such as The Sims 3 and Sim City, while also filling up the lack of Madden with the Dead Space and Dragon Age franchise.
For now, PlayStation 4 is the only major platform that receives Electronic Arts-published games without the option to get EA Access or Origin Access. A PlayStation representative previously explained that Sony turned the service down for its new console because it didn’t provide a good value, as Inquisitr reported.
What do you think of EA Access and the free trial being offered to Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers on the Xbox One? Are there any favorite games that grab your gaming attention? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Electronic Arts]
