EA is rebranding its two subscription services, EA Access and EA Origin, into a single new service called EA Play… yes, EA’s using the name of its annual event as a name for its subscription service now.
If that already wasn’t confusing enough, EA still plans on offering a more premium service, called EA Play Pro, that replaces EA Origin Access Pro.
According to a blog post on EA’s website, the change will mostly be aesthetic, and the premium services will retain most of their features like the 10% discount, early access to future releases, and EA Vault.
As other outlets have pointed out, it’s similar to what HBO did back in June when parent company WarnerMedia eliminated HBO GO and HBO Now and replaced them with HBO Max and an app simply called HBO.
The name changes go into effect on August 18 and, according to EA, the prices of the services should remain the same ($4.99 per month for EA Play Basic / $14.99 per month for EA Play Pro).
EA Access vs EA Origin
EA’s two subscription services have been around for years, and at last count had around 5 million members worldwide, but they’ve always paled in comparison to Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus, which each have tens of millions of subscribers.
That’s because, instead of providing online match-making, EA’s services really just provide a discount on new EA games and access to the Vault, an all-you-can-download buffet of older titles like last year’s Madden, FIFA and Battlefield.
Originally, EA Access described that program for console gamers, launching first on Xbox One and then coming to PS4, while Origin has always been the name of the subscription for PC players to coincide with the EA Origin Store and game launcher.
…yeah, it was probably time for EA to pick some new names.
The new service, again, is more of a consolidation rather than a completely new, cutting-edge competitor for Xbox Live Gold or PS Plus, but EA says it will be adding exclusive in-game challenges and monthly reward drops for members sometime in the next few months.
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