First, Sony came out with the beta for PlayStation Now, their much-promised but little seen streaming video game service. Next, EA launched their EA Access service, which takes on a more traditional model like Steam for the PC, where gamers download a full game to their system and then play it for as long as they want.
But EA only launched their service on the XBox One, prompting PlayStation gamers to cry fowl. Hold on a second, EA replied. They offered their service first and exclusively to Sony, but had it rejected. Sony says that EA Access didn’t add any value to the console, though it’s pretty obvious that it was a competing – and some would say superior – product. EA had little choice but to launch their service only on Xbox.
So that’s where we stand right now. What’s a gamer to do? On the one hand, early reports like the one by GiN’s own Todd Hargosh suggest that EA Access is a better value for gamers. But on the other, if successful, does this mean that every company will want to have their own streaming or downloading service, each one asking for more money from gamers? The next couple months will be quite interesting as these services shake out the bugs, and gamers line up on what is becoming yet another front in the console war.
