EA Access will be free to Xbox One Gold Members on June 12-22nd

[George P Global Moderator]

For their E3 event in June, EA is opening up Access to all Gold members between June 12th and 22nd,  emails have been going out to current access users informing them about the event and letting them know they can tell their friends who aren't members about it.

 

http://www.windowscentral.com/ea-access-xbox-one-reportedly-will-be-free-xbox-live-gold-members-june-12-22?utm_source=wpc&utm_medium=twitter

[SierraSonic]

Moved away from paying monthly to play online, no one would pay if the multiplayer was free, or at least 90% of people would drop it. Good for them I guess. I personally hope this trend dies.

Edited May 18, 2016 by SierraSonic

[MikeChipshop Member]

13 minutes ago, SierraSonic said:

Moved away from paying monthly to play online, no one would pay if the multiplayer was free, or at least 90% of people would drop it. Good for them I guess. I personally hope this trend dies.

Well that's your opinion, but i whole heartedly disagree. 

[SierraSonic]

That is what I gave,

Are you telling me you would continue to pay for gold/plus if multiplayer was free? I am pretty sure that is the minority opinion, I am sure the majority would drop it fast. You don't see pc gamers clamoring to pay monthly for those features. We rather have humble bundles or steam sales, own the game after the network dies from old age, and have 3rd party support for the games via mods well after their official deaths. But to each their own. I personally rather save the money, but this is good for the people who want to pay monthly to play online, lose the rights to the games after they stop paying or are left behind when the consoles support is dropped, and never have third party support/mods. Paying for convenience sure does have it's costs.

 

Example, battlefield 2 is alive and well, even if EA killed it.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

5 minutes ago, SierraSonic said:

That is what I gave,

Are you telling me you would continue to pay for gold/plus if multiplayer was free? I am pretty sure that is the minority opinion, I am sure the majority would drop it fast. You don't see pc gamers clamoring to pay monthly for those features. We rather have humble bundles or steam sales, own the game after the network dies from old age, and have 3rd party support for the games via mods well after their official deaths. But to each their own. I personally rather save the money, but this is good for the people who want to pay monthly to play online, lose the rights to the games after they stop paying or are left behind when the consoles support is dropped, and never have third party support/mods. Paying for convenience sure does have it's costs.

 

Example, battlefield 2 is alive and well, even if EA killed it.

I wouldn't pay the £30/year if MP was free, but I'd happily pay a reduced price for the extras/bonuses you get. Don't forget you also get extra discount on sales and Games with Gold.

 

Also if you share you Xbox in the home, paying a single fee for the console makes it better value for money. 

 

But let's not derail the topic and make it a PC vs console argument. 

 

[SierraSonic]

That wasn't my intent, I was showing my dislike for EA Access and Gold/Plus, consoles are great devices that are being held back by said services. Like I said, for people who find the value in them, they are good/better, than the alternatives, such as not having them.

 

Regarding discounts, I think its overall cheaper to buy outright if your willing to wait for the GOTY editions of games or when there are bundles/sales than the savings you get by paying for savings. EA Access is for people who need the latest, right away, but I think in the long run they end up paying more. I've spent less than $500 for this gaming library. https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197969306956/?cc=us

I realize the site says over $1k spent, but that's not fair seeing as I spent $8 or less for multiple bundles of 8-10 games, and they are calculating based only on steams lowest price.

[spaceelf]

1 hour ago, SierraSonic said:

EA Access is for people who need the latest, right away, but I think in the long run they end up paying more.

Say what?  It includes a discount for new games, but it does not include new games.  You get everything in its vault until your subscription runs out.

 

At $30/yr or even $5/mo it's a hell of a deal for people who don't need the newest games right away.  (I'm rather a non-sports EA fan so I can't wait that long.)

[Cnónna]

they'd probably get more subscribers to EA access if they allowed folk to pay for it using the Xbox currency.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

27 minutes ago, Cnónna said:

they'd probably get more subscribers to EA access if they allowed folk to pay for it using the Xbox currency.

Do you mean Xbox Live Points? Those don't exist anymore.

[Cnónna]

1 minute ago, Andrew said:

Do you mean Xbox Live Points? Those don't exist anymore.

what ever it's called now those prepaid currency cards. Xbox money, hell I don't know what they're called.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

4 minutes ago, Cnónna said:

what ever it's called now those prepaid currency cards. Xbox money, hell I don't know what they're called.

Yeah those don't exist anymore. Xbox Live Prepaid cards have transitioned to local currency too. They switched when the X1 was announced.

[spaceelf]

... http://www.amazon.com/EA-Access-12-Month-Subscription/dp/B014Q5UNH4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463594135&sr=8-1&keywords=ea+access

[George P Global Moderator]

3 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Yeah those don't exist anymore. Xbox Live Prepaid cards have transitioned to local currency too. They switched when the X1 was announced.

I think he means pay for EA access using your Xbox Live balance, instead of having to have a separate access payment process going.

[Cnónna]

1 minute ago, LostCat said:

... http://www.amazon.com/EA-Access-12-Month-Subscription/dp/B014Q5UNH4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463594135&sr=8-1&keywords=ea+access

am pretty sure they aren't available outside of the US/Canada. I've never seen a single one of them in a supermarket. not that I'd bother EA access doesn't offer much value to me. I either already have the games I would want to paly or I've no interest in the rest.

[SierraSonic]

1 hour ago, LostCat said:

Say what?  It includes a discount for new games, but it does not include new games.  You get everything in its vault until your subscription runs out.

 

At $30/yr or even $5/mo it's a hell of a deal for people who don't need the newest games right away.  (I'm rather a non-sports EA fan so I can't wait that long.)

Yes, so your spending $5 a month, to save around $5 off new games, that eventually get added to the catalog for the subscription price of $5 a month. And you still lose access to any game you didn't buy. The whole thing doesn't make any sense short term or long term.

[Showan]

10 hours ago, Cnónna said:

am pretty sure they aren't available outside of the US/Canada. I've never seen a single one of them in a supermarket. not that I'd bother EA access doesn't offer much value to me. I either already have the games I would want to paly or I've no interest in the rest.

 

Your have to buy EA Access with actual cash or buy an actual EA Access pre-paid card...

No Microsoft gift cards accepted on this purchase...

[George P Global Moderator]

If the vault has the games you like, then for $5 a month, it's a very good deal, specially as the vault keeps growing in size as time goes on.  Think of it this way, if at some point there's 5 games in there that you want to play, you can pay that $5 for a month, get access to them, play them as much as you want, and then let it expire at the end of the month and move on.  5 games for $5 is a deal to me, even if you went out to rent them at gamefly or whatever, I think you'll be spending more than that.   And heck, with time, that 5 might be 10, or more, again, for $5 a month, I see value in that.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I think it's about time Battlefront was added, especially with BF1 on the horizon Far too many sports games in the vault for my liking.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

15 hours ago, SierraSonic said:

Yes, so your spending $5 a month, to save around $5 off new games, that eventually get added to the catalog for the subscription price of $5 a month. And you still lose access to any game you didn't buy. The whole thing doesn't make any sense short term or long term.

Did some quick maths, The Vault has 21 games currently, which are valued at around £200 2nd hand on Amazon. If I were to buy them all and resell them a year later I'd maybe lose 10-15% so around £20-£30, I bought my EA Access sub for £15 this year....seems like good value to me. 

 

Unless I've missed something.

[n_K]

19 hours ago, SierraSonic said:

That wasn't my intent, I was showing my dislike for EA Access and Gold/Plus, consoles are great devices that are being held back by said services. Like I said, for people who find the value in them, they are good/better, than the alternatives, such as not having them.

 

Regarding discounts, I think its overall cheaper to buy outright if your willing to wait for the GOTY editions of games or when there are bundles/sales than the savings you get by paying for savings. EA Access is for people who need the latest, right away, but I think in the long run they end up paying more. I've spent less than $500 for this gaming library. https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197969306956/?cc=us

I realize the site says over $1k spent, but that's not fair seeing as I spent $8 or less for multiple bundles of 8-10 games, and they are calculating based only on steams lowest price.

1 minute on uplink? JUST one MINUTE? What's wrong with you!

[MikeChipshop Member]

20 hours ago, SierraSonic said:

Are you telling me you would continue to pay for gold/plus if multiplayer was free?

 

Would i continue to pay for something if it was free? Well... no, obviously

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

22 minutes ago, Riva said:

Problem 1: Xbox Live Gold is a poor value for money

Problem 2: You need to pay for Xbox Live Gold in order to get EA Access

I think this solves both problems

Problem 2 is not correct, you don't need Gold for EA Access.

[SierraSonic]

5 hours ago, dipsylalapo said:

Did some quick maths, The Vault has 21 games currently, which are valued at around £200 2nd hand on Amazon. If I were to buy them all and resell them a year later I'd maybe lose 10-15% so around £20-£30, I bought my EA Access sub for £15 this year....seems like good value to me. 

 

Unless I've missed something.

Yes, I don't include resale in my logic because I like to keep my games. What do you get when EA discontinues the access program? Regardless if you find value in temporary and limited access to content don't let me convince you otherwise.

5 hours ago, n_K said:

1 minute on uplink? JUST one MINUTE? What's wrong with you!

Ill get to work, sir!

5 hours ago, MikeChipshop said:

 

Would i continue to pay for something if it was free? Well... no, obviously

So all the other content isn't enough to hold you, point made, most people wouldn't.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

My MP time is a fraction of what it used to be, and I pretty much keep my subscriptions for GwG and PS+,

Spoiler

because despite the mental gymnastics people like to do the games are not free.

 

There was a time when XBL could justify it's cost, but Sony threw a spanner in the works when PSN on PS3 launched. Now they're both at it. There's little value to the resources used on the MP side of things, especially when most games are still P2P. I think PSN and XBL will be forced to offer more in future, especially if you compare something like Amazon Prime. I don't know anyone who purchases movies or TV shows from either network, I'm surprised they even bother with their respective marketplaces. MS is desperate for a service to sell, then they should be bulking up the one they have.

[George P Global Moderator]

4 hours ago, Andrew said:

My MP time is a fraction of what it used to be, and I pretty much keep my subscriptions for GwG and PS+,

  Reveal hidden contents

because despite the mental gymnastics people like to do the games are not free.

 

There was a time when XBL could justify it's cost, but Sony threw a spanner in the works when PSN on PS3 launched. Now they're both at it. There's little value to the resources used on the MP side of things, especially when most games are still P2P. I think PSN and XBL will be forced to offer more in future, especially if you compare something like Amazon Prime. I don't know anyone who purchases movies or TV shows from either network, I'm surprised they even bother with their respective marketplaces. MS is desperate for a service to sell, then they should be bulking up the one they have.

For now most games are but I'm seeing a trend going for dedicated servers more and more, at that point things change up.   Even if you take MP out of the equation, with the deals you can get on 12 months,  as low as $30, to get the games you get and the extra off on sales for being a member is still a deal to many. 

 

I don't see what more you can add to these services to bulk them up, other than streaming games down the line as part of the package, but that's not going to come anytime soon.  I suppose one way would be to allow members to sell their digital content to other members, if you can get that past the publishers.