EA’s Origin™ Officially Ousted on Windows®, Replaced By The EA App
Out with the old, in with the new.
Electronic Arts’ (EA) PC video game platform, Origin™, finds itself obsolete after more than a decade of service. The reason for it is simple: it’s being replaced by a more streamlined, faster system called the EA app – literally.
Guess that’s one way of rebranding software, right?
The EA app had already been in the works since 2020, with EA planning a bigger overhaul of all its video game services, like EA Play and EA Play Live.
After 2 years of development and beta testing, the EA app will now take over all of Origin’s services and components, including the video games store.
As discussed during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz in 2020, EA’s reasoning behind the rebranding was to:
“…create a more frictionless, fast, socially-oriented experience for our players, where it becomes the best place for them to connect with the people they want to play with in the games they want to play.”
– Mike Blank, former EA SVP Player Network
Origin had always been compared viciously to the success of Valve’s Steam platform, but following amazing receptions to exclusive EA games in the past, things might turn out differently for the EA app this time around.
What is the EA app?
The EA app is EA’s video game distribution platform, home to exclusive triple-A (AAA) games published by the company. Started as Origin in 2011, the EA app is the future for Microsoft Windows systems.
EA continues to support Origin on macOS but a majority of the player base comes from Windows, so expect better features to be on the EA app instead.
Among the many highlights of the EA app is its optimized interface, ensuring faster downloads and smoother game launches.
It is also much simpler in design, making it easier to navigate and browse through.
The primary objective of the EA app is to improve interconnectivity between players from other gaming platforms as well. This is done by linking our EA accounts to respective Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation profiles, creating a master database of your friends list in one spot.
If you have Origin installed on your computer, you will receive an invitation to update to the EA app. Although you can choose to ignore this for now, most functionality will likely be phased out in favour of the new platform, so better to update now than later.
EA might be known for some controversial decisions throughout the video games industry, but the EA app could be a step in the right direction for the company within the foreseeable future.
You can download the EA app right now from the official webpage or approve its update after launching Origin.
Source: EA, GamesIndustry.biz