Microsoft and Electronic Arts are teaming up to accelerate the arrival of the Netflix pricing model to the video game industry. The companies announced Wednesday, September 9 that Xbox Game Pass members would receive an EA Play membership at no extra cost beginning this holiday.
The announcement brings 60 more titles to the all-you-can-play service, including FIFA 20, Titanfall 2 and Need for Speed Heat. Players will also get up to 10-hour trials on newer titles such as Madden NFL 21 and FIFA 21. EA Play access also includes some of EA’s biggest franchises, including Battlefield, Mass Effect, Skate, and The Sims.
That’s on top of the over 100 Microsoft games that are already a part of Game Pass and the looming arrival of access to Microsoft’s xCloud streaming service.
Gamers with an “Ultimate” subscription will be able to access EA Play on their Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Windows 10 PCs.
Game Pass has been an increasingly popular service with Xbox owners. The company says 10 million people have signed up for it over the past three years.
The partnership is part of a growing tsunami of news Microsoft has been releasing in recent days as it prepares for the November 10 launch of Xbox Series X. Also on Wednesday, the company announced pre-orders for the Xbox Series X would open up on September 22. And on Tuesday, it confirmed the long-rumored Xbox Series S – a smaller version of its next-generation console, with fewer onboard features – and shocked players with a low $299 price point.
Sony, meanwhile, has remained silent about pricing and dates for the PlayStation 5, which has given Microsoft the spotlight to make its case to gamers. Sony is expected to begin making its own announcements soon.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.