EA have announced they’re bringing their subscription service for games to PC after a successful few months on Xbox One. It’s getting a name change to Origin Access, but is otherwise the same deal – constant access to a bunch of EA’s games added to constantly, plus some other benefits, for a subscription fee. It’s a fairly good deal, and the first Netflix-but-games service that’s managed to stand the test of time and interest.
There’s some good games in here, good enough to hit our best RPGs list.
So, first, the games. Assuming you live in the US, Canada, UK or Germany here’s what you’ll get access to if you go sign up right now:
- Battlefield 3, 4 and Hardline
- All three Dragon Age games
- Sim City
- The Sims 3
- FIFA 15
- Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare
- Need for Speed Rivals
- Dead Space and its two sequels
- This War of Mine
That’ll set you back £3.99 / $4.99 / €4.99 a month for access to ‘The Vault’, from which you’ll be able to download all that stuff. Not good enough value? Well, EA also offer a limited amount of early access time to their upcoming games if you’re subscribed. Battlefront got a bit of this on console, as will UFC 2, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 and Unravel. No announcement yet as to which of those will get it on PC. An active sub also gives you 10% off all purchases.
What’s the catch? Well, some of the DLC won’t be included in the vault, so you can bet you’ll have to pay up for the complete experience. You’re also not going to get the latest version of the sports games, or The Sims, or whatever the hot new thing is – honestly I’m surprised Inquisition is on there – because they want you to go ‘hey, I enjoyed the last one, maybe I should buy this new one.’
Still, seems worth it for £4, to me. I’d like to see the Mass Effect series included, but it’s possible they don’t have the correct rights to it. You can always just consider it an investment into a single game that you play over the course of a month, then cancel, same as I often do for single Netflix series. What do you think?