Console sports games who buy all of Electronic Arts"s sport titles now have a new way to experience gaming on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 console. EA has just launched what it is calling the EA Sports Season Ticket. This new program costs $24.95 a year but if you play a lot of sports games you might be interested in some of its features.
The biggest one is letting all subscribers download and play all of EA Sports" game titles, including best sellers like Madden NFL 12 and FIFA Soccer 12, three days before the games are shipped to stores. Once that free period is over gamers will still have to purchase the retail disk version of each game to continue playing. However all of the progress made during the free play period can be transferred to the retail version. For example Madden NFL 12 is scheduled to ship to stores on August 30 which means that EA Sports Season Pass subscribers will be able to download and play the game on August 27. Other games covered by the program include NHL 12, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NCAA Football.
In addition to the early access to games, EA Sports Season Ticket holders get a 20 percent discount on all DLC content for EA Sports games along with free access to web-based content such as the Creation Center packs for the upcoming FIFA Soccer 12. While the program is available for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners here in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand residents can only subscribe to the program on the Xbox 360 console.