After being practically nonexistent on Steam for roughly six years, EA will bring new content, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order — in all its massive glory — to steam starting this year. the company will also bring EA Access to the digital storefront.
After EA launched its Origin platform in 2013, the publisher gradually stopped releasing content on Steam and other platforms, making most of their PC titles Origin-exclusive. However, that’s going to change in the coming months, according to EA’s Senior Vice President Mike Blank.
As of this writing, Jedi: Fallen Order has seen its Steam pre-order page go live. EA Access will be available starting in spring 2020.
Though Blank didn’t provide concrete release dates or titles for future games, he did say titles like Unravel 2 and The Sims 4 should debut sometime this year. Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V should make their way onto Steam sometime next year. For players to play a game via EA Access on Steam, the game must first be on Steam.
Third-party titles published by EA, including the Batman Arkham games, probably won’t be included on Steam.
What Blank says will probably be included is the core benefit package EA Access offers on other platforms, like early access and 10% off. There’s still uncertainty surrounding Origin and Steam account connectivity and cross-platform play — one of this year’s biggest topics — though it’s something EA is actively looking into.
Finally, Blank sees this move towards being more open with game availability as a trend consumers will likely see more of. He says everyone benefits when games are more accessible to more people, and there are only so many subscriptions consumers can tolerate before they start getting burned out.
In a press release regarding the news, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the company was excited to diversify it distribution platforms.
This is the start of an exciting partnership with Valve that will see us innovating for PC players around the world. Through our subscription, great games and more, we’re excited to bring players in the Steam and Origin communities together with access to the best games, whenever and wherever they want to play.
Almost as if on cue, Kojima Productions recently said that the supposed PS4-exclusive Death Stranding would make its way to PC in 2020. The move garnered praise from fans and the industry alike, with many excited by the prospect of greater accessibility across multiple platforms.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
