EA has announced that it's opening up its Origin Access PC gaming subscription service to other publishers, with games from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and other publishers set to join the service.
First up are a bunch of Batman games from Warner Bros., including Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, LEGO Batman, LEGO Batman 2, and LEGO Batman 3 that all available now for subscribers. Other games will be added soon, including The Witness, Out of the Park Baseball 19, Lost Castle, Bulletstorm – Lite, and Wasteland 2.
Origin Access also includes access to the Vault of older EA games, a list that includes the original Mass Effect trilogy, the Mirror’s Edge games, the Titanfall games, some of the more recent Battlefield games, the Dragon Age series, and more. The service costs $4.99 per month, or $29.99 per year, and also offers players a 10 percent discount on Origin purchases. EA offers a similar service for the Xbox One called EA Access, but it seems that subscription service will only continue to offer EA games for the foreseeable future.
The fact that EA is adding games from other publishers is an important move for the company as it looks to compete for the subscription gaming market, especially as the marketplace is starting to see more competitors like Utomik begin to crop up. If EA can establish itself as a Netflix-esque one-stop shop for PC gaming needs (including a massive, cross-publisher library), it could be just the thing to bring Origin back into the spotlight and take back some of the PC gaming market from the juggernaut that is Valve’s Steam.