When EA was developing its Access platform, a library of games for a monthly subscription fee, back in 2014, it approached Sony and Microsoft to be partners on the deal. Sony declined, and so the service was announced on the Xbox Stage at the company’s E3 press conference that year.
Fast forward five years, and the service is still active, and is finally coming to PlayStation 4, nearly a full half decade after its initial Xbox debut.
Launching in July 2019, EA Access gives players, well, access, to EA’s biggest franchises like Star Wars Battlefront, FIFA, and Dragon Age, as well as a 10% discount on other EA games and their DLC. Other titles like Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and Mass Effect Andromeda are available on the service, while some newer titles like Anthem are not.
“As we continue to invest in digital and subscription services, bringing our games to even more people across both next generation consoles is an exciting opportunity for everyone,” said Matt Bilbey, executive VP of strategic growth. “Our goal is to give players more choice to try and play our games wherever and however they choose and we’re happy to bring the service to PlayStation 4.”
The service, available for $5 USD per month, or half that, at $30 USD per year, will be available through the PlayStation Store when it launches in under two months. It’s not clear at this time whether having an EA Access subscription on Xbox One will carry over to PlayStation 4, though we expect it would function just like any other streaming services.
What does remain in question is just which games will become available from day one. On Xbox One, there are a number of Xbox 360 titles available as a result of Microsoft’s commitment to backwards compatibility on their console. However, without this functionality on PlayStation 4, it is reasonable to assume that the vast majority of the current EA Access catalog will not be available on PlayStation 4, still giving Xbox the edge in the library.
EA Access launches on PlayStation 4 this July. While PlayStation has decided to forego an E3 presence this year, EA will be hosting a series of announcements this year, so expect further details at that time.