Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, More EA Games Coming To Steam

Since EA launched its Origin service, it has been the only place that players have been able to purchase the publisher's games on PC, but that will change very soon. EA has announced it is bringing a variety of its titles to Steam, beginning with next month's highly anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Ahead of its release on November 15, Respawn's upcoming Star Wars game is now available to pre-order on Valve's storefront, marking the first new EA game to hit Steam in six years. The publisher says it will be followed by The Sims 4, Unravel Two, and "other major titles" in the next few months. Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V will arrive next year, and those will support cross-play between Steam and Origin.

All of this is leading up to the Steam launch of EA Access, EA's premium subscription service. EA touts that this is the "first and only" game subscription service to be available on Valve's storefront. No release date has been announced yet, but EA Access is slated to launch on Steam sometime next spring, and subscriptions will cost the same as on consoles: $5 a month or $30 a year.

The Steam version of EA Access will give subscribers similar perks as on other platforms. Along with access to the Vault--a library of titles that users can play for free--subscribers will be able to take advantage of exclusive discounts and more. "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," EA senior VP Mike Blank told GamesIndustry.biz. "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."

The arrival of EA Access on Steam seems to open up the chance that the service could launch on other PC storefronts as well, such as the Epic Games Store. It appears EA has no such plans as of now, but Blank hasn't dismissed the possibility: "What I'll say today is we are open to new partnerships. While I don't have anything to announce today, we are always open to new partnerships that make sense for our players. So we'll see what the future holds."