Xbox Game Pass Just Added Some of the Best EA Games From the Early 2000s

January 23, 2026, 2:53pm

Microsoft has added two of some of the best EA games to be released in the early 2000s to Xbox Game Pass. Electronic Arts has been around since 1982 and has been a staple of the gaming industry for many years. It is one of the biggest players in the space in 2026, and the same was true in the early 2000s. In fact, some argue EA peaked in the 2000s. Unfortunately, for those on console, the two new additions appear to be limited to PC.

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More specifically, Microsoft has shadow dropped the following two EA games to the PC version of Xbox Game Pass: The Sims and The Sims 2. The first two games in the series join their two successors, The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, which were already available via the Microsoft subscription service.

Old, But the Best Games in the EA Series

As you may know, The Sims series peaked out of the gate. In 2000, Maxis and EA debuted the series with The Sims, which released to a 92 on Metacritic. It was one of the best games of the year. In 2004, this was followed up by The Sims 2, which was released to a 90 on Metacritic, and was also lauded as one of the best games of its year. Five years later, in 2009, The Sims 3 was released to an 86 on Metacritic, a great score, but a bit lower. Then in 2014, it began to unravel. The Sims 4 was released and released to a 70 on Metacritic.

It is unclear why Xbox and Electronic Arts have not advertised these two additions — which come with all DLC released for both games — but it may be because they are available via EA Play, and thus limited to the Ultimate tier of the subscription service. Whatever the case, these are very nostalgic additions for anyone who grew up playing these games on PC. Both did get console ports, but the console editions were different versions of the game and were noticeably inferior in every way.