

I tried to come up with comparisons from the spheres of TV, film and music, and failed to match it. It redefines the gaming space, it reminds us of the kind of deals that are possible, it makes us wonder, if this, then what next? It’s technically better than nothing, but not by much.The EA – Xbox Game Pass deal is the biggest in gaming history. I feel like EA is trying to upsell me with things I already have. I almost wish the games weren’t part of Game Pass at all if they can’t be baked into the Xbox App like every other Game Pass game. The more you look into this EA Play deal with Game Pass the more confusing and frustrating it gets. It would be one thing if EA Play Pro was exclusively offering new, EA-published games, but Endless Legend, a game published by Sega, is locked behind the EA Play Pro paywall while it’s available for free on Game Pass. To make matters worse, A Plague Tale: Innocence is included with Game Pass AND EA Play Pro, so it’s conceivable that someone might subscribe to Play Pro through the EA app to download A Plague Tale without realizing they could have downloaded it for free through the Xbox App. Games like The Surge 2, Darksiders 3, and Two Point Hospital also require a $15/month subscription, and they’re not even new. It isn’t just the newest games that are locked behind Play Pro though. It’s not user-friendly, and it seems like a pretty anti-player strategy on EA’s end for a couple of reasons. You need to browse both apps side by side to find all the games. The only games you can’t just download and play through the Xbox app are the EA Play games, and what’s worse is you can’t even search for them. When Microsoft added 20 Bethesda games to Game Pass last month, the entire collection was just added to the app library like any other game. I can play Battlefront 2 without needing to load into another app, the whole EA Play library is integrated into the Xbox App.

When I launch the Xbox app on my phone, the entire library is there. Related: Raphael Colantonio Talks Xbox Game Pass, Dishonored, And Microsoft's Bethesda Acquisition Eventually, I figured it all out and I’ve been able to download some games from the EA Desktop app, but after all the trouble I just have to stop and wonder, what is it all for? I’ve had to re-link my account three times so far, and other people are finding an issue with their User Account Control settings in Windows that prevents the Xbox App from opening the EA Play app. There should be a pop-up at the top that leads to a Microsoft log-in screen, but the process hasn’t been that simple for everyone. In this new app, you need to link your Microsoft account to your EA account before you can access any of the games.
