Contrary to rumor, it appears as though EA’s all-you-can-eat subscription service EA Access will not require an Xbox Live Gold membership when it launches on Xbox One.
The news comes via IGN, as the site was able to secure a statement from EA explaining what will and won’t be required to take part in the service.
When it launches, any Xbox One gamer can join EA Access and take advantage of the benefits of membership. In order to connect to multiplayer gameplay on the Xbox One platform you will need a subscription to Xbox Gold.
When you consider that much of EA Access’s offering includes sports titles, the next logical step is that a player would want a Gold membership to take those titles online — at least once the franchise mode grows tiresome. Still, the fact that Gold isn’t mandatory for Access is superb news, and an incredibly smart move by both Microsoft and EA. For me, it would have been the primary deal-breaker.
Related: Sony Dismisses EA Access For Xbox One: “It’s Not Good Value”
It’s still not known exactly when EA Access will be made available, outside of an un-revealing “soon” repeatedly uttered by EA spokespeople. We do know one thing, though — the service is unlikely to grace the PlayStation 4.
