It does devalue what Sony is currently offering. Everyone needs to forget PS Now. That isn't the issue. It is Plus that will suffer with such a move. Imagine it. We are paying to get access to the online services but those perks that make it a steal would dwindle without major third party publisher support. EA isn't going to let their titles appear on Plus or games with gold if they are trying to sell their own service on that system (it would be pointless having the service). So we will still be paying the same price for a lot less support from third parties. Hence the devaluing. This isn't a hard concept to grasp

@iamsuperman

If more publishers take their content off of ps plus or games with gold, that would force Sony and Microsoft to find other ways to provide value. Maybe they'd offer more first party titles... maybe they'd lower the price, maybe they'd roll in other services like xbox music...

Also, if publishers have their own services, gamers have more control over their monthly bonuses. Right now, with ps+ and gwg, you get two games a month on next gen consoles. But there's no guarantee you will want the games that end up being offered or you may already have them.

If all publishers copied EA Access, gamers could change services monthly, based on whichever company had the best vault.

In other words, competition in the digital space leads to better offerings from 1st and 3rd parties.

Admittedly, I'm biased towards Sony most of the time - I think I should let that one out first.

To you guys who are seemingly 'angry' at Sony for rejecting EA Access, why exactly do you think Sony should embrace the service in the first place? Sony has their own PSNow that they have announced way earlier, already in Beta too, which will offer many more games from many publishers INCLUDING from EA themselves and as for offering old games in "vault", Sony already has PS+!

I think, Sony is pretty "honest" when they said their reason to reject EA Access was because of "poor value for gamers". Think about it. It's like they are encouraging publisher to charge for a redundant service already available to them in the form of PSNow and PS+. That's poor value already over there. I know their interest is more towards pushing their own service, but who doesn't?

Remember when Nintendo rejected EA when they wanted Nintendo to use Origin? Gamers were up in arms that day praising Nintendo and booing EA's arrogance but why the hate towards Sony now for this rejection? Double standards much? "Bu...bu...but...MS accepted it! They are thinking about the gamers!" BS! MS needed every boost they can get at the moment considering they are lacking behind both the PS4 and the Wii U!

But why suddenly EA announced Access? Are they trying to be a good guy? Look no further than PS+! EA knows Sony is making money off the PS+ model while offering free games from other publishers too, not just theirs! Now just imagine offering a similar service but with in-house games only and there will be more profits as you don't have to share it with other publishers! THAT'S what EA is after and see from now on, there will be no more EA's games offered in PS+ or GWG as EA will try their best to capitalise on EA Access!

@mhunterjr

Competition isn't always a good thing. In this case it actually quite a bad thing. The more publishers get involved the more subscription services are needed to be paid for but we still need to pay access for online. Your talking a great expense just to play back catalogue games. One service is not only more user friendly but consumer friendly. We get a lot of benefits right now with plus and games with gold. It won't change prices but discounts (which require paying to multiple services to get)

@iamnsuperman
Movie studio execs made similar arguments years ago about emerging digital distribution services like Netflix, before that it was music industry but you know what happens, YES as they predicted sales of actual physical movies disc purchases declined a lot over just the last 5yrs, BUT the movie studios still make more in the long run because of MORE people in TOTAL renting through services like Netflix, Hulu and not only have movie studios jumped in bigtime, now they and most tv networks now have their own inhouse and online distribution sites for their content alone.

The reason being is although a lot of people on average used to buy 1 movie maybe per month, many didn't and they either rented, or borrowed movies but since the cost of entry became so cheap with Netflix many and other services, many MORE people consider a DVD rentals like a impulse purchase, no different than buying a piece of candy, its the age old strategy of lowering prices and make less per consumer but making more profits because you now tap a much larger customer base. Sony, Micro, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc could all co-exist and thrive in this digital sales environment but only if they adjust and realize the one who will do well is (A) the one who offers good content(not necessarily their new releases but quality games from their backlog) (B) the ones who offer the best or comparable deals, they may lose on individual purchases upfront but word of mouth of the great deals will drive up revenue, especially because its digital(very little extra costs between selling the same digital content to 1000 or 1mil customers.

The scare tactics from consumers who are against change is always well they will raise prices later and then what do we do? Uhm cancel, bad or expensive services either fail or the companies usually adjust before it does but the beauty of competition is NBC wants you to subscribe to their tv network service so they aren't going to charge you 3X's as much as CBS tv network and expect to stay in business, HBO however has premium content so yes its more expensive but once again just because networks, studios, game pubs, offer a subscription service DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, that's the other beauty of this competition, personally I don't know why in the hell some people would actually pay for a online tv network subscription vs just dvr and watching it for free when you get a chance but guess what some do so they can access their favorite show instantly on any device= CONSUMER OPTIONS ARE ALWAYS GOOD. So what most normal consumers usually do is subscribe to 1 of their favorite services and then buy the other companies products the same way they did 10, 20 yrs ago(all their life) and guess what other than how prices for products and services go up with inflation like for all retail store products, there is no "Aha price gouging" on pc due to COMPETITION and also retail brick and mortar stores are still selling the same products. PSN can and will co-exist the same way physical products have not disappeared and WILL NOT disappear anytime soon until all the advantages of consolidated pricing through a wide variety of retailers is in the consumers favor, so not anytime soon.

PS Now - rent games for a few hours

EA Access - rent games for a month

There's a big difference here.