A one year subscription to Xbox Live Gold costs $59.99 while access to EA Access for the same period costs $29.99 but is EA's offering really good value compared to the more expensive Microsoft model?
Redditor Hidesquadron1 thinks he has the answer.
Here's what you get with Xbox Live Gold:
- 48 Free Games per year (24 for X360, 24 for XB1), with possibilities of additional freebies periodically. (note: 48 may not be entirely accurate, as the 2 game per month trend on XB1 isn't set in stone as far as I can tell. Let's run with this assumption anyway.)
- Access to Online Multiplayer
- Exclusive Discounts with Deals with Gold (percentages vary)
- Parties and Party Chat
- Smart Match
- Home Gold
- Game DVR Cloud Storage
- Upload Studio
- Xbox Fitness
Assuming the cost of an average Games with Gold title (you can find out August's offerings here) is around $10 if purchased individually from the Xbox Marketplace and you avail of all 48 games on offer, Games with Gold represents value of $480.
And this is what comes with EA Access:
- Four games (so far), all of which are free with a subscription
- 10% Discount to new games and DLC via digital download
- Early Access to EA Releases by one week
- Try-it Before you Buy-It Service for EA Releases
- Additional perks as ecosystem evolves
Three of the game available now are Battlefield 4, FIFA 15, and Madden 25, which are $60 each while the fourth game, Peggle 2, is $12. This means the value of the four games comes to $192.
The combined total for the two services is $672 at a cost of $90, not bad and if you make use of everything available with Gold, it does represent pretty good value, if you don't use everything, well it's not quite so promising. As the games available with EA Access also expand, we can expect the service to represent better as well. It's worth noting that you can avail of EA Access games without a Live Gold account (though you will need one for multiplayer).
Sony has rejected EA Access saying it doesn't represent good value for the PlayStation gamer, the Japanese platform holder charges $50 for a year of PlayStation Plus and $30 to rent a game for three months on PlayStation Now.
