EA Play won't bring its free games to Xbox Game Pass for PC until 2021

Xbox Game Pass on PC was supposed to get EA Play today, but Microsoft says it's going to take longer than expected.

EA Play, which offers a large library of EA games to play and download, joined the console version of Xbox Game Pass in time for the launch of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S last month. The same announcement revealed that EA Play would join Xbox Game Pass on PC in December, but Microsoft now says it needs more time "to ensure a great experience for everyone." EA Play's arrival on Xbox Game Pass for PC is now set for some time in 2021 and Microsoft says it will have more info to share early next year.

That's all the information Microsoft is providing so far, though I wouldn't be surprised if the extra complexities of bringing PC titles together in one downloadable space has contributed to the delay. EA has also partnered with Valve to bring EA Play to Steam, and not all of its titles are available through that platform yet - there may be similar delays for the Game Pass implementation.

It's not all bad news for Xbox Game Pass for PC; Microsoft announced just last week that it will enable cloud gaming on the platform starting in spring 2021. Previously limited to mobile devices, this will let you stream your Game Pass titles to PC instead of running it locally, which sounds like a great way to play on a non-gaming laptop or an older desktop. Since it's almost impossible to buy a RTX 3080 or buy an AMD RX 6800 graphics card these days, it could be a nice stopgap.

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