EA is back at Steam - also adding an EA Access subscription
The teaser from yesterday gave it away, now however it is official. EA is going to offer its games again through Steam, the EA Access subscription is also coming to the platform. The first EA game to appear on Steam as part of the renewed collaboration is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
EA Access on Steam will give subscribers access to a slate of the publisher's titles. But there's a snag, as a game needs to be on Steam in the first place for EA Access on Steam to let subscribers play it, and EA's output for the most of the last decade is not yet on the storefront. The publisher is working to rectify that, and has confirmed The Sims 4 and Unravel 2 will arrive on Steam "in the coming months," with titles like Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V set to debut next year.
There is also some question around EA Access perks. When we ask if Steam subscribers will get the same early trial periods for big new releases and 10% off EA content across the platform, Blank says they likely will.
"We anticipate that the core benefits of the subscription service as it exists on Origin or Xbox or PlayStation will be the same as those which you would get on Steam," he says. "And when I say the core benefits, I'm talking about things like early access, the 10% discount, or that catalog of games that you might see on EA Access today on Xbox or on PlayStation 4."
We want to make the experience for players who want to play their games on Steam or Origin as frictionless as possible, so we're working towards connecting our accounts together as well as enabling players to play together across both Steam and Origin so they can play the games with the people they want to play with regardless of which platform they play on," Blank says.
Pricing for EA Access on Steam will be the same as on consoles or the basic tier of Origin Access: $4.99 a month or $29.99 annually.
While EA Access on Steam will give players yet another option in terms of gaming subscription services, Blank sees it as part of a bid to ultimately reduce fragmentation on that front.
Senior Member
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Larger reach and awareness, I guess. Ubisoft has been doing this (and is doing it still at Epic) to funnel new users towards Uplay. Origin maybe stagnating in terms of newcomers.
Senior Member
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Yeah... I think they are testing the waters there, not much more than this. I mean, it's a win for both if people buy more copies via steam, than those avoiding origin in the first place.
I don't get the real use of buying games on steam besides maybe, maybe, some mods, which do seem to be a no-go with most EA games nontheless... we shall see. But as I understood Hilbert's article, it's no use getting ea access on steam yet, since it's missing many, many titles that are not on steam, and them being on steam is a requirement to play them via ea access in the first place...
Senior Member
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I really appreciate the update on this situation; thanks for posting it Hilbert. It's my hope that ultimately both EA and Steam will benefit from this collaboration. If so, the upshot will be a greater variety of game titles for gamers.
Senior Member
Posts: 3395
Joined: 2007-05-31
Not only Ubisoft, nearly every editor that have their own download tool requiere to install it on Steam (arc, uplay, glyph etc etc) so at the end it is a false "one portal for all", it's more a "one portal for having all portal installed on your HDD"...
But again, it work with Steam but also in the other way too.
(as George Abitbol said before to pass away: "What a sh*t world !" )
Senior Member
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Not sure what the big point of being on Steam is when they are practically pulling an Ubisoft (as they do with UPlay) and just have Steam install their Origin launcher anyway. The Fallen Order steam shop page clearly indicates that both Origin and an EA account are mandatory.