You Won’t Need Xbox Live Gold for EA Access

Not unless you decide to play online.

Yesterday, EA announced EA Access exclusively for the Xbox One, a Netflix like subscription based service costing as low as $5 a month that will let players access EA games available on the service (and so far, the selection seems to look promising) over streaming indefinitely. If you decide to buy it for a year, it’s as cheap as $30 a year, or just $2.50 a month.

A lot of people were still worried, though, that the service, which will have its charges in add on top of Xbox Live Gold, might actually need Xbox Live Gold to begin with- it wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft have gated apps behind the Gold paywall. For the longest time, all media and apps, such as Netflix, Youtube, and even Internet Explorer, weren’t available unless you have Live Gold. But EA has confirmed you can still get EA Access without Live Gold, provided you do not want to play online.

“Any Xbox One gamer can join EA Access and take advantage of the benefits of membership,” said a company representative to Joystiq. “In order to connect to multiplayer gameplay on the Xbox One platform you will need a subscription to Xbox Gold.”

That… all sounds unusually nice of EA. All of it does, really. What’s the catch?

EAEA AccessMicrosoftXbox Live GoldXbox One