Xbox announced today that Knockout City, a three-on-three dodgeball game coming from Valen Studios and EA, will be available at launch to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers and EA Play members.
EA Play, which used to be known as EA Access, is a subscription service that grants a whole host of features, namely early access to EA titles and free access to them when they release. Late last year, EA partnered with Microsoft to package EA Play with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which already gives access to the whole Game Pass catalog on consoles and PC and an Xbox Live Gold subscription for just $15 a month.
It’s important to note here that if you’re just subscribed to Game Pass, you will not get Knockout City for free. You have to be enrolled under either Game Pass Ultimate or EA Play in order to get the game, otherwise you’ll have to pay $20 when the game launches. Either way, it’s pretty affordable.
It seems like a no-brainer for Knockout City to be on Game Pass and EA Play in some capacity. Most EA titles, especially under their indie EA Originals labels, have made their way there and it should help give Knockout City a huge audience, especially at launch. I think it deserves it based on our impressions from some months ago, and the hands-on time I got later in the beta.
The post also took the time to note that Knockout City’s recent crossplay beta seemed to be a major hit, reaching a million downloads over the course of a single weekend. So maybe the game doesn’t even need to be on Game Pass Ultimate, but it certainly won’t hurt the game’s chances to be on there when it launches on May 21.