EA Games has come crawling back to Steam after leaving in 2011 for its own digital platform Origin. Fans started speculating this move by EA last week when games Madden and Battlefield posted an image on Twitter of an EA mug with steam coming out of it. EA mug, with steam, get it?
EA Access, their subscription service, will be available on Steam next spring, making it the only subscription service on Steam. Gamers who use the service receive access to The Vault, exclusive rewards, in-game benefits, and discounts.
The first game EA is introducing to Steam is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, launching November 15. Pre-ordering is already available.
EA has promised to release other significant titles on Steam like The Sims 4 and Unravel Two. Furthermore, multiplayer games published by EA, including Battlefield V, Apex Legends, and FIFA 20, will be available next year. Steam and Origin gamers will be able to play the multiplayer titles together.
Although Steam and Origin run on the same platform, EA is treating them as two separate entities. This means that if a customer has purchased an EA game on Origin, they will not be able to transfer it over to Steam. However, as mentioned earlier, EA will be introducing multiplayer cross-play between Steam and Origin, which should make gamers feel less negatively affected by the move.
Here is the announcement tweet from EA:
Why is EA heading back to Steam?
Origin has performed decently well but has never become the rival to Steam EA was hoping it would be.
EA did try to differentiate Origin from other gaming platforms by introducing a $5 a month subscription plan to play EA games that haven’t been released, as well as other PC games, and a discount on Origin purchases. They also offered free game downloads. However, Origin has been riddled with negatively received game launches, which has kept a lot of gamers with Steam.
Steam has performed significantly better than Origin, and it seems like EA has accepted that.
Senior vice president of EA, Mike Blank, has explained the company’s stance on the move to Steam.
“At the core, we are game makers, and our aspiration is to connect as many people as we can to the great games that we built and make it as frictionless as possible for them to do that. So, with more players playing more games and more platforms, frankly, we want to be where the players are.”
Blank has clearly tipped his cap to Steam. It was a massive move in 2011 when EA left Steam to run their games on Origin. However, gamers did not want to leave Steam for EA to the capacity that EA was hoping for.
Only time will tell if this is the correct or incorrect move for EA. Will EA games get a huge boost for switching over to Steam or should they have stuck to their guns with Origin?
