Microsoft Acquiring EA: 8 Major Things That Could Happen

7. Xbox Game Pass Just Got Infinitely More Interesting

The Xbox Game Pass is easily the most exciting and unique thing Microsoft can offer a consumer. Yes, Sony has PlayStation Now, but that service is routed in streaming, which always results in lag no matter what. XGP fixes this by letting you download the games first - booting them up as downloading continues within minutes.

Right now the common rebuttal to "You can play loads of new games!" is to reply with "... which new ones?", and although Game Pass will slowly build to offer consumers the entire breadth of titles across Xbox One, 360 and the original system, Microsoft could do with casting a wider net.

Enter EA, and their EA Access service. For years now, Access customers have been able to play brand new titles before anyone else, alongside an archive of EA's greatest hits. Games are rotated out to keep customers coming back, and everything from Mass Effect to Dead Space, Dragon Age to Titanfall has made an appearance.

Should Microsoft nab EA, immediately that monthly pass looks way more tantalising. It could be why the likes of the Mass Effect trilogy never got remastered months ago, and alongside the newest exclusives (Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2) being included, makes Game Pass damn-near irresistible.