OpenAI Eyes Massive 10GW Ohio Data Center Campus in Potential $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal 
Naver Stock Jumps on NVIDIA Partnership to Build South Korea’s AI Infrastructure 
SK Hynix Stock Rebounds as AI Memory Chip Demand Fuels Expansion Plans 
CrowdStrike Beats Q1 FY2027 Expectations, Raises Outlook Despite After-Hours Stock Decline 
Apollo and Blackstone Complete $35 Billion Anthropic AI Infrastructure Financing Deal 
Meta Challenges Australia’s Proposed Tech Tax, Citing U.S. Trade Agreement Concerns 
Meta AI Strategy Faces Challenges as Zuckerberg Admits Mistakes in Internal Memo 
Qualcomm Stock Gains After Jensen Huang Endorsement 
OpenAI Files Confidential IPO Draft as AI Giants Race Toward Public Markets 
Astera Labs and Rocket Lab Surge After Nasdaq-100 Inclusion Announcement 
SpaceX IPO Sets Record With $75 Billion Raise, Valuation Hits $1.77 Trillion 
Switch Eyes Multi-Billion-Dollar Funding Round at $50 Billion Valuation Ahead of Potential IPO 
South Korea Weighs AI Profit Sharing as Samsung and SK Hynix Earnings Surge 
Hanmi Semicon Shares Surge After $33 Million SpaceX Investment 
Trump Administration Defends Anthropic AI Restrictions in Ongoing Federal Lawsuit 
Quantinuum Raises $1.68 Billion in Upsized Nasdaq IPO Amid Growing Quantum Computing Demand 
Microsoft has big plans for the Xbox Game Pass platform, and one move that made that so apparent was the announcement that its Ultimate-tier service will also include the EA Play library this year. The company has now given a specific date when it will launch on consoles, but PC players will have to wait a bit longer.
EA Play launches on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for console players first
The addition of the EA Play library was one of the biggest announcements Xbox had for its Netflix-like service this year. It means that subscribers of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on PC and consoles are getting the additional games from EA without any added charges.
At the time, the EA Play addition was promised to take place during the holiday. A few weeks later, Microsoft announced that the EA Play debut on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will happen first for the Xbox consoles. It will actually coincide with the official retail launch date of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on Nov. 10. Those with Ultimate membership but plays on PC will have to wait until the “beginning in December” to get the EA Play games. Meanwhile, PC players subscribed to the cheaper Xbox Game Pass for PC will also benefit from Microsoft and EA’s partnership.
The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, on its own, comes with a library of more than 100 video games, and Xbox-exclusive titles are also being added in the service on the first day of their release. EA Play is packed with more than 60 titles, including multiple iterations of the “FIFA” and “Madden” sports sim franchises, “Titanfall 2,” “Battlefield 1,” various “Need for Speed” installments, the base game of “The Sims 4,” “Sim City,” and more.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription costs $14.99 a month and comes with access to Xbox Live Gold services. Note that EA Play ($4.99/month) is different from EA Play Pro ($14.99/month), but it still grants “unlimited access” to the games included in its library despite the cheaper membership fee.
Xbox Game Pass likely to include more Bethesda games
EA Play is unlikely the last major addition to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service, especially after Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion. To those who do not know, ZeniMax is the parent company to several AAA video game developers such as Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studios, and id Software which are popular for “The Elder Scrolls,” “Dishonored,” and “DOOM” franchises.
It is safe to assume that many of these popular games would be added to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the future. But it remains to be seen whether Microsoft would make upcoming Bethesda titles like “Starfield” and “The Elder Scrolls 6” exclusive to Xbox and PC gamers.
Featured photo by Muhannad Ajjan on Unsplash
