EA has revealed they have a replacement for their Origin PC platform, and it will be coming out very soon.
Their EA app has left open beta and is going to be replacing Origin as their primary PC platform very soon. EA calls it their fastest and lightest PC client to date, with a new streamlined design. They claim the new design will make it easier to look for your games and content, and also discover new games. Other features they promise to come with the client are automatic game downloads and background updates.
A quick look at the preview screens of the EA app shows a clear resemblance to the Epic Games Store PC client. On a personal level, I think this is a good thing. Even for players who don’t use the Epic Games Store client themselves, they will find this more sparse UI easier to navigate overall. In fact, they are adding a feature that is already found in other clients, where you can connect your EA account to your PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam accounts. The EA app will notify you when your friends on those platforms are online, so you can reach out for you to play EA games together.
I got curious about Origin, probably as much as any other Origin account holder would, after reading this news. So I decided to log on to my account myself, and made a few observations about the current Origin client experience.
For starters, Origin is serviceable enough when you’re using the client itself. The menus aren’t particularly complicated, it’s easy to find your games or move from there to the store.
Now, the biggest problem I have always had when it comes to using Origin is just logging and getting the client to load properly takes too much time. I suspect it’s this part of the software that EA wants to eliminate completely. Presumably they couldn’t find a way to improve this original software on this point. So, they’ve decided it makes more sense to just make a new app. Our experiences will likely vary, but on my potato of a PC, I had gotten used to waiting five minutes or longer from clicking the Origin launch button to being able to start playing my games on it.
Other than that, I think Origin could use improvement when it comes to accessing DLC and other content. I managed to snag Mass Effect 2 when EA gave it away on the platform, and that giveaway included goodies like the Mass Effect catch up comic book, and some PC wallpapers. But Origin did not communicate very well where those goodies were in my computer. Since I got them for free, this was an annoyance. I’m sure it was considerably more irritating for people who actually paid for content like it.
Historically, Origin has also been a source of headaches for EA, with outages hitting deadlines. However, EA has a lot riding on getting their PC client right as well. EA Play, formerly known as EA Access, is the company’s own bespoke video game subscription service. EA Play drives a lot of revenue for the company, but it’s likely most of that comes from EA Play being bundled with Xbox Game Pass. EA could make a lot more if gamers subscribed directly to them, but they will not be doing that with Origin.
EA promises that they will be notifying gamers promptly when the new EA app will be ready, and that account holders will be able to seamlessly transfer over their games, content, and cloud save data to the new app. Notably, Mac owners will continue to have their version of the Origin client for now.
Source: EA
