Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in the company's financial report today that he is "very skeptical" that subscriptions will be the only or primary way for consumers to access video games in the future. Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson took a very different view during an investor conference call today, saying the company is focused on expanding its EA Play subscription service as much as possible.

"Our EA Play service is the most successful multi-platform subscription in the industry, and with the addition of our subscription services on PS4 and Steam, we now have over 6.5 million paying members," Wilson said. With EA Play set to launch on Microsoft Game Pass in the next few days, we see an opportunity to double our subscriber base in the next 12 months."

According to Wilson, Electronic Arts sees the partnership as a way to "build an access point for EA Play subscriptions on Microsoft's platform," and for the company to simply add individual games to Xbox Game Pass more impactful than simply adding individual games to Xbox Game Pass.

"This is actually the right to an EA Play subscription, and as a result of our relationship with the players who offer subscriptions, it's the same as selling them outside of the platform. So we're going to continue to think broadly about cross-platform subscriptions and making them available to any player, wherever they want, however they want, with as little friction as possible." [EA Play will be introduced to Xbox Game Pass for PC in December at no additional charge to subscribers, but EA CFO Blake Jorgensen made it clear that the deal is not free for Microsoft. He did not get into specifics, but "you can imagine that Microsoft wanted us to be part of their subscriptions.

"The real goal is how to grow our subscription and help Microsoft grow their subscription as well." Jorgensen said. This is a great partnership, and we're at a very early stage in the industry with game subscriptions, and we're doing everything we can to help consumers understand why there's so much potential for them to be introduced to new games, to play the games they love, and to get great deals on games." We do everything possible to make sure they understand that.

"We don't do anything for free. We and Microsoft have figured out the right way to make it work economically for both of us.

EA Play will be available on Steam on August 31 and will appear on Xbox Game Pass for consoles on November 10.