EA Play gaming sub launches on Steam this month

Electronic Arts has unveiled that their gaming subscription services EA Access and Origin Access are now called EA Play. It still offers the same exact features but is now merged under a single new name. Furthermore, we now know that on August 31st, it will become available on Steam.

Gaming subscriptions are the future. At least, that’s the impression you might get when you realize just how heavily platform holders and publishers are pushing the subscription model onto gamers.

EA Play is a game subscription service that makes every game more rewarding with access to exclusive player challenges, in-game rewards, member-only content and a library of top titles including The Sims™ 4, Need for Speed™ Heat, Titanfall® 2 – and some of EA’s most fabled franchises like Battlefield™, Star Wars™ Battlefront and Plants vs Zombies™.

But just like in the television scene where multiple services are vying for customers, things are starting to get a bit complicated in the gaming scene. Xbox Game Pass, Uplay+, PS Now, EA Access and Origin Access are likely just the beginning.

Once you notice that EA Access and Origin Access are the same things by same publisher – Electronic Arts – you realize how needlessly complicate the company has acted. EA has thought the same thing and decided to rebrand both into EA Play.

EA Play and EA Play Pro offer the same services of Access and Origin, with the Pro upgrade giving users access to all of EA’s games Day 1. Sadly, the complications don’t entirely end here. While Steam is getting the basic EA Play sub starting at the end of this month, EA Play Pro will remain exclusive through Electronic Arts’ own digital game client Origin.

Still, it marks a first on Steam, and we expect that more subscription services are going to land on PC’s premier gaming place in the future.