When EA launched its EA Access subscription service five years ago, it was exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox. The service later launched on PC through EA’s own Origin. EA and Sony have now announced that the subscription service will finally be coming to PlayStation this July.
As it is on the Xbox and on Pc, it’ll cost $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year. On PC and Xbox at the moment that equates to R48.50 per month or R299.00 per year, but given the extra PlayStation tax we seem to pay here, it may be a little more. It’s still a worthwhile service, especially if you like the sort of games that EA sells.
In addition to unlimited access to a vault of EA games old and new, the subscription also gives players 10 hours of access to new EA games the moment they’re available. In addition to those early trials, it offers a 10 per cent discount on full-priced EA games. It’s a handy service to subscribe to because it could have helped players avoid paying full price for Anthem; they could have just played the 10 hour trial and realised that that’s really all the game had to offer and been out of pocket for just R50 instead of the R1000 sticker price.
Unfortunately for those slinging multiple consoles, the subscription will be separate from the existing one – so if you already subscribe to EA Access on Xbox, you’ll have to pay up a second time to play those games on PS4.
What makes this week’s announcement curious is that five years ago when EA Access launched, Sony passed on the service, saying that it didn’t offer “good value to the PlayStation gamer.” There’s no indication of what made Sony change its mind, but I suspect it has to do with feeling like they’re being left behind in the wake of the increasing popularity of services like EA Access and Microsoft’s Game Pass.
It’s also worth noting that the EA Access Vault on Xbox One also includes a number of Xbox 360 games that are backwards compatible on Microsoft’s machine. With Sony offering no such feature on the PlayStation 4, it’s likely it’ll have a more limited offering, making the Xbox One (and Pc!) versions of the service a better value proposition.
Last Updated: May 9, 2019
R1ker
May 9, 2019 at 09:52
In all honesty EA access for me is a waste of money. I get my value out of xbox game pass.
Pieter Kruger
May 9, 2019 at 10:09
This! I will not renew my EA Access sub when it expires…
Jonah Cash
May 10, 2019 at 07:39
Having the old EA games on Xbox and PC is not an advantage in my opinion. Most sport games don’t age that well, and that is all I play of any of EA’s games. I will definitely look into this when it launches. I can’t see myself buy a new Fifa game in any case, so will just wait for the new one to hit the vault 6 months later.