EA Access library will be 'permanent and substantial'

"The Vault will get its share of triple-A titles," says
Peter Moore

EA Access, which was announced in July and is currently
in beta, offers a 'Vault' of games that can be unlocked
for £3.99.$4.99 a month, or £19.99/$29.99 a year. The
service is only available to Xbox One owners, with Sony
deciding against supporting it on PS4.

Games available in the beta include FIFA 14, Madden
NFL 25, Battlefield 4 and Peggle 2, but EA chief
operating officer Peter Moore says more major titles
are on the way.
"The Vault will get its share of triple-A titles," Moore
told CVG. "We haven't made any announcements to that
extent about exactly when, where and how, but the
Vault will be substantial."

[n4rc]

Nice...

Think that was really the only worry.. The clause in the tos is probably for old games that get server support cut after a few years

[3-4-5]

Nobody is going back to play the old Fifa/Madden/ Battlefield, once the new ones are released though.

Games that are dependent upon an active online community are worthless once the community moves on.

It's a nice option but if I'm going to invest in a sports games, then I plan on putting some time into franchise mode over a few months and thus would most likely buy the full purchase.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

?? There are thousands of people playing old Battlefield games right now.

[timlot]

Hmm, lets say there will be close to 6 million XBox Ones out there when this launches. I don't think its out of the question 25% or 1.5 million would sign up for EA Access. That is a conservative estimate I actually think the attach rate will be higher. That means 1.5 million have access to those old sports games. I'm predicting the online community will be strong for vault sports games.

[nicksetzer1]

Hmmm, so first it was "games in the vault will just swap out." Now it is, who cares, noone wants to play the old games, they should just remove them..... makes sense.

[mixolydian_id]

There's pro's and con's to this.

1st year a user signs up they're faced with a flurry of new games to play great value for money IMO.
2nd year... just what will be new to the subscriber though? Cheaper DLC?

While every time somebody jumps on to a EA access... that's one more gamer from the already limited pool of gamers that isn't playing something else.

It could be very damaging for the industry's gaming population.... probably won't make a dent sales in general though.

What I mean is, where a game like destiny is released, peak server use will be in the first month of release. Due to services like this, people will quickly deviate from playing one title unrelentingly. Longer length attachment (following release) will diminish... but people will be happier about revisiting a game they've enjoyed.

The reason is due to the subcriptive nature of EA access etc... that you only get your money's worth if you actually use the service.

It kinda reminds me of how I feel about the music industry. If nobody is listening to my music, it has no value whatsoever.

So... I suppose by having people play these games... they'll have a bigger user base... better feedback... more potential investment from dev's and better games in the future.

It's like they're stretching out an arm to the consumer and saying..
"Play our games, show us what's more popular globally, make our games a household name within your living space, play them with your friends (the best way to play), prepare to care more about the games we're releasing, obviously at the expense of the rest of the video games industry, our user base will grow whilst 3rd parties will suffer for it"

It's a very clever psychological marketing practise. If the consumer is happy, then they're set to make a tidy profit. It is the new era of gaming after all.

[Gozer]

Your "philosophy" about EA Access hurting the gaming industry doesn't make much sense to me. If anything, EA Access is set up to increase EA game sales. You get Early Access to EA titles. That will give X1 owners first hand decision making knowledge about whether or not they want to buy a game. They will have no need to go by the opinions of different game reviewers, because they will have already played the game their selves. Add on the discounts, and an X1 owner has another reason to buy a title.

As far as how the Vault will work. Lets look at it from a business perspective. The decision making process about when a game should be added to the Vault, should be directed at when retailers orders for X1 EA titles get small, or stop. Because that's mostly the point the game stops making money for them. Sometime close to that point the game should be added to the Vault. This will maximize profit for the game, because it will have a new pool of customers that could subscribe to the service, or buy dlc. So an X1 EA game that had once become pretty much worthless gets new life breathed into it.

Also, ps4 retail orders of an EA title shouldn't have any relation to when an X1 EA title gets added to the Vault. This could lead to titles arriving in the Vault for the X1 while the ps4 version of the same title is still selling at retail. Thus making the title a better deal for X1 owners. Vice versa, if a ps4 EA title stops getting retail orders while the X1 version is still selling at retail, it will no effect as to when the title shows up in the Vault for X1 owners.

Its not a "clever psychological marketing practice", its a genuine good deal for X1 gamers. The marketing for EA Access hasn't even started yet.

[FanboyKilla]

lol haters gone hate. thats what they do. you want in to ea access right now? pm me. im gone go play fifa now. later hater.

@mixolydian let me guess. you got a playstation? isnt ea like the biggest 3rd party publisher? if so, means alot of people are playing their games, and that alot of people can benefit from this. kudos to ea and ms. this is good, and gets better over time. i broke my neck trying to get in the beta. lol now madden, 5 days early for f n free. ''you can hate me now.''

[Team_Litt]

"I think one of the key things is that once a game goes into the Vault it stays there, it's not going to be taken out, that's a commitment we've made."
One less thing the other side can try use as ammunition against this awesome service.

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

They'll still try to find something to use.

[DeadlyOreo]

To be honest it is an nice service, and I'm a little sad it's not on PS4, it's not a big deal though. What you need to realise is that Xbox fans like you are just as bad as "the other side", using this service as a brag for how much better your Xbox One is. It's a neat service for some who might use, it's not a game changer in any way, let's be honest.

[ghostface9]

ya because the sony fanboys werent doing that with psnow until they figured out its way overpriced and the fact that 90 percent of the games are crap.

[rainslacker]

Being someone on the other side, I can say that actually makes the service much more attractive. It was speculated based on the initial TOS that the games would be rotated out after a set period of time.

This makes the service actually more like PS+ in that if you keep your subscription active, you maintain all the games you registered under the service.

I don't know if I'm too keen on having a bunch of old sports games available, I don't play them that often to begin with, and most people don't play the old ones once the new ones come out. But if they manage to have their bigger, better AAA IP's in there, then I can see this being worth $30 a year.

I'm not personally sure if I would get it instead of, or in addition to PS+ if it were available on PS4, and I doubt I'd get it when/if I get an X1, but at least it does have more value now. It may be one of those things I'd pick up if stores were running discounts on it, and I could stock up on the subscription time, or in a moment of impulse purchase one day. Between backlog and PS+, I really don't have need for another service such as this.

[Volkama]

To be honest it's so dirt cheap that if you have the console you might as well get it. £20 for a year? That's less than half the price of Fighter Within.

I already own FIFA14 and battlefield 4, and I have no interest in madden. My kid might play peggle. But £20? Fine, I've never tried a madden game and now I might as well.

My hope is that the service booms and EA find they can move away from the £50+season pass+MTs rigid packages they release now. A wider access subscription package is a very different value proposition, and can change the dynamics of content development and delivery completely. We could and should see more projects like ubisoft's child of light, generally more focused smallest games that don't have that retail price burden. Not in the short term though.

[rainslacker]

That was my point really. Being able to keep the games in the vault makes it very attractive. If I couldn't keep the games from PS+, I probably wouldn't have subscribed, because I often can't get around to playing them when they're up on the store.

The only downside to this service for me, and the reason why I'd be hesitant to get it, is that there just aren't that many EA games that I would want to play. Not into sports and FPS, so the current offering isn't my cup of tea. The games I actually enjoy from them, I would probably enjoy enough to buy when they release, or at least close to it. Since I don't buy my games digitally, the 10% discount doesn't really do much for me.

[danny818]

Can we earn gamerscore and keep them aswell?

[n4rc]

Ya.. You download the full game just like you bought it..

But.. And here's the fun part.. There is DRM (ahhhhh!!!!) Built into the titles offered.. So if your sub lapses, you'll lose access to all of them..

So.. That will be the argument I'd bet.. Even tho its completely pointless lol.. There's a huge difference between simple DRM we all use and don't even notice and extreme anti-piracy measures used on PC software

[blackout]

Just like PS+ where you never own the games. GWG on the other hand, when you download you keep FOREVER.

[lodossrage]

@blackout

That only goes for the Xbox 360.

On the XB1 GWG functions exactly like PS Plus games do. So if stop paying for Live you DO lose your XB1 license for the games.

[Angerfist]

Yes you can get gamerscore and you can keep it as long as your subscription goes.

[danny818]

cool man. This service is ocatually pretty cool. 30$ a month isn't bad

[Tedakin]

For the cost of 1 game you can get this for 2 years. Pretty nuts.

[n4rc]

Makes sense tho..

Who actually buys games at retail that are 8-12 months old? Its all preowned sales that only cost ea money (server support etc)

At least this way.. They have obviously forecasted this to make the same or more money then they do currently. If true, it shows just how bad the preowned industry is for gaming imo

[NatureOfLogic_]

If this turns out to be successful for EA, Gamestop will just counter by making EA used games cheaper.

[700p]

I do sometimes.

[rainslacker]

Lot's of people do. By then, new retail games are typically priced at $20-30. That's when they get thrown into sales bins at places like Best Buy and Amazon, and people scrounge through them to pick up cheap games.

Of course, by then, EA has likely already sold them at full price to the retailer, so said retailer is just looking to cut their losses. With this program, much like with used games, this just makes it harder for them to do so.

Just so people don't think I'm being one sided here, PS+ has the same thing happen as well. Often when a game goes up on PS+, GameStop will lower it's sale value in the store for both new and used. They don't typically advertise it though.

[tgunzz]

Can't wait to get this going on my xb1! Looks to be very robust, and of great value...

[IVanSpinal]

now i love you EA :)

[koliosis]

Told you haters so

[user367272]

Thank god the Xbox One has EA Access. This sounds great for only $5 a month and not $4.99 for 4 hours on a single game.

[colonel179]

Thank god EA Access exist. It will put pressure on Sony to set a better pricing scheme for PS Now, and in turn, making it a better value.

[ghostface9]

prices wont change there made by the developers of the game so there going to keep being overpriced

[ltachiUchiha]

Lets see how many 3rd party devs decide to do this. If other huge 3rd party devs decide to do the same like ubisoft, activision, square enix, sega, even capcom, I would like for these guys to have a service like this.

[Volkama]

I imagine it'll happen fairly soon, as MS obviously have the backend systems in place to support it. Setting up a like service at this point wil be fairly trivial. Ubisoft will be next to join the party I think.

The services will all come to the Playstation as well, despite the "it's not good value" claims. It will take a while for Sony to get the necessaries in place though.

[Angerfist]

Peter Moore and Phil Spencer leading Xbox again? ;) Would be great. Moore just does it under disguise by working at EA.

[700p]

It wouldnt shock me if they make mass effect atleast a timed exclusive again. :)

[BiggerBoss]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is NOT going to happen

[Tedakin]

I have the app and noticed that yeah you can just buy a 1 month 4.99 subscription. If say 2 games are out on the vault you want to beat, paying 4.99 to get both and beat them in that month is an incredible deal. This may be a thing I just have from time to time as I need it.

[TimeSkipLuffy]

I hope they put it in their TOC that they won't remove a game once its been added. Then I think EA access is really a bonus. They just need to let us know when a game is coming or you can simply wait until a lot of games are in the vault and then jump into the program.

[Volkama]

Terms are there to cover their asses. They aren't going to make silly commitments that could get them in trouble down the line.

That doesn't mean they have any intention to remove games.

[TimeSkipLuffy]

It's a bonus as long as games are added on a regular basis.
I still think it's better for those games to be released as GwG. We may get less titles a year from EA but its not that those titles will be new anyway.

[Funantic1]

This is a very nice cheap service that offers different games for $30 a year without a Xbox Live Gold subscription. BF4 by itself is about $30 so it's like I get a whole library of games for the price of one. You can't beat that deal anywhere on consoles period. I can't wait to see the older EA classics like Medal of Honor, Fight Night, or EA Big games get ported or remastered.

[Hipp0]

The EA official help website states that:

“Games will continue to be added to The Vault, and we currently have no plans to remove any game from The Vault, but we might not be able to keep games in The Vault forever. That said, you’ll be updated if and when a game is scheduled to leave The Vault."

[TimeSkipLuffy]

they can say a lot but if they want to run back they just say... "hey! Our homepage says they won't be there forever! So go home and be happy with the games that are left!"

Let's get all those believers get into the program first and see what's happening in a year. If they keep their promise no game will be removed and I have access to hopefully more than four games.

[Condemnedman]

Sign me up . Happy Xbox gamer here :-)

[Immorals]

Was gonna pick up bf4 for 30 quid, may as well wait for EA access! (already 100% peggle 2). Have no interest in sports games either.

[jcnba28]

EA Access looks like it's going to be a greats service for gamers.

[StifflerK]

I've got it and it's great.

Hopefully they'll keep the yearly subscription at £19.99 - it's great value.