Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can now try NHL 23 without paying anything more than their usual subscription fee. There are many ways Microsoft tries to make the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription worthwhile, and one such method is by giving subscribers access to all the EA Play games.
Years ago, EA Play existed as a separate entity, completely unassociated with Xbox Game Pass. It required its own distinct subscription fee and in exchange gave users access to a nice selection of EA games, including older titles as well as relatively new releases. There are other benefits associated with EA Play as well, including free game trials and early access to certain titles in some cases. New games are added to EA Play on a regular basis, and whenever that happens, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers get access to them, too.
So is the case with NHL 23, which was recently added to the EA Play lineup and therefore is now available to play with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. The catch is that there's only one way to play NHL 23 through Game Pass Ultimate, and that's on consoles. A native PC version of NHL 23 doesn't exist, so PC gamers are left out, and no cloud version of NHL 23 is available at the time of this writing. However, cloud versions of EA games have been known to be added after the fact, so there's still hope for NHL 23 to hit the cloud.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers don't just have access to the EA Play library of games. Along with EA's offerings, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also gives subscribers access to all the games that are available to play across vanilla Game Pass and PC Game Pass. And if that weren't enough, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offers bonus perks for subscribers to claim every month as well, which sometimes includes freebies like free movies.
Subscribers get even more free stuff when taking the Xbox Live Gold benefits into account. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also includes all the benefits associated with Xbox Live Gold, meaning it gives subscribers the ability to play online multiplayer and also lets them claim a pair of free games every month. The Xbox free Games with Gold program pales in comparison to the titles that are available to play through Game Pass, but it's still nice for subscribers to be able to claim free games every month.