EA has announced that, after leaving the service back in 2011, they'll finally be returning to Steam.
So far the plan is to start with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which now has a Steam page and you can pre-order the game on the service to your heart's desire. EA says that, starting next year, they will begin to add some of their other games to Steam. At the very least, the following games will be getting brought to Steam by 2020, with the first two coming in the next few months:
- The Sims 4
- Unravel Two
- Apex Legends
- FIFA 2020
- Battlefield V
Any of EA's other games are still waiting on conformation, but it seems doubtful they'll be letting anything stay on Origin for good. Soon you may be able to finally own the complete Mass Effect, Dragon's Age, Dead Space, and Crysis series in one place if you started buying them before EA left Steam in 2011, which seems like a fantastic deal. However, it does come with a catch. Similar to Ubisoft's games requiring Uplay to launch, EA's games will require Origin. Multiplayer games will also allow players to play in a single community on PC.
“This is a good day for gamers,” said Valve’s Gabe Newell. “We’re excited to partner with EA to not only bring their great games and subscription service to Steam, but also to open up our communities to each other in an unprecedented way that will benefit players and developers around the world.”
It's not just EA's games coming to Steam, but Origin Access will be heading over as well. The service sees players paying a monthly fee to get access to a library of games, including various EA titles both new and old. There's no word on how Origin Access will work on Steam yet, but it'll be the first time a multi-game subscription program is available on Valve's service, so it should be interesting to see.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be launching on PC via Origins and Steam, along with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, on November 15th, 2019.
How do you feel about EA's return to Steam? Do you think there's an Epic reason they're doing so? Will your next EA game be purchased on Steam? Let us know in the comments below!