Freebies no More, or the Paid Lunch: EA Abandons On The House Program

[Raevenlord]

EA announced last week its new Origin Access Premier program, which launches today and introduces a new access tier which provides unlimited access to imminent-launch games five days before the official release. This program will cost £14.99/$14.99 a month or £89.99/$99.99 a year. Alongside this launch, EA has decided to axe the freebie On the House initiative - a strange correlation, because these programs hardly interfere with one another.

Users who have already gained access to these freebies will keep them, of course, but attempts to enter the "On the House" page are met with a redirect to the Origin Access webpage. However, users who hadn't grabbed the games will be left in the dust (even if just some metaphorical specks of it, since the games can be easily and quite cheaply had), such as Theme Hospital, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Battlefield series. Read on for EA's remarks on this decision.

"Origin On the House has been retired and games will no longer be offered through the program. This change won't affect any games players downloaded from the service prior to that date - those are theirs to keep forever. Even though this chapter of On the House is coming to an end, we're happy that we got to introduce so many great games to our awesome players. We're constantly looking for ways to improve our service and give our users an even better experience, and we thank everyone for being part of our community."

EA via Press Release

Origin Access Premier launches today and won't necessarily act as a replacement for On The House, but a renewed focus on its subscription services. Costing £14.99/$14.99 a month or £89.99/$99.99 a year, the purpose of the new program is to give players access to newly released games ahead of their street debut. This includes Battlefield V ahead of its October 19th launch, and next year's Anthem.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Readlight]

I remembered there was masefect2 after trial end there were tons of microtransactions, others garbage. Their client is malware, and when windows get reinstalled whit no internet everything is lost. And now on ps4 NHL19 Beta, their servers are down. and on other games, they ask to pay for multiplayer.

 

[StrayKAT]

Probably one of the cooler things EA ever did. I got Jade Empire for free that way.

Oh well. Not like there's anything else I want from them.

 

[Mescalamba]

Its fine, not like I was ever going to buy anything from EA anyway.

 

[ZoneDymo]

you could tell this was dying a long time ago, its just a silly attempt to promote Origin which I might add is still a pos program to use today, just very user UNfriendly.

 

[StrayKAT]

you could tell this was dying a long time ago, its just a silly attempt to promote Origin which I might add is still a pos program to use today, just very user UNfriendly.

And a very sad end for the Origin company (that EA bought long ago and never did shit with).

edit: In a way, it's pretty amazing just how many franchises EA squandered and simply sat on. They probably deserve a award for it.

 

[TheDeeGee]

I abandoned EA about 10 years ago, so i won't miss out on anything.

 

[john_]

Probably EA was seeing too many people getting those old games and enjoying themselves, while not giving a single dollar to EA in the end.

 

[chaosmassive]

EA cant do loot boxes on their soon to be released AAA titles
so they need to squeeze every single cent out of gamer pockets to make up for it to keep investor happy
there are no such free lunch in EA's book,
so you dont have money?, NO GAMES FOR YOU !

 

[FordGT90Concept]

EA hasn't updated On the House in a long time and I think they did it primarily to get people into the Origin ecosystem. They really ran out of games they could afford to give away for free so makes sense they axed it.

edit: In a way, it's pretty amazing just how many franchises EA squandered and simply sat on. They probably deserve a award for it.

They got the poo award a few times, does that count?

 

[StrayKAT]

EA hasn't updated On the House in a long time and I think they did it primarily to get people into the Origin ecosystem. They really ran out of games they could afford to give away for free so makes sense they axed it.



They got the poo award a few times, does that count?

I'm not sure poo is epic enough. I mean, they ruined not only the likes of the whole Sim franchise, but let games like Ultima, Wing Commander, Populous, System Shock waste away in oblivion.. Along with ruining Command and Conquer, multiple Star Wars games (which SHOULD sell themselves), Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and promising smaller series like Skate and Dead Space. And while I have no sympathy for MMOs, Mythic was easily the second most successful MMO company for a time.. until EA got their hands on them.

All of this takes some damn effort.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I think I got a dozen or so games on Origin from the "on the house" aspect they offered. Most games I probably won't play, but I got them just because they were free.

It really was the only reason I ever started Origin. I would open it about once every 6-8 weeks, check if there was anything new in the free game department and log off Origin.

I guess I have no reason to really open Origin anymore. Doesn't hurt my feelings.

 

[Mescalamba]

And a very sad end for the Origin company (that EA bought long ago and never did shit with).

edit: In a way, it's pretty amazing just how many franchises EA squandered and simply sat on. They probably deserve a award for it.

Ubisoft would be another to give award for murdering franchises.

And maybe special award to Blizzard for murdering own frenchise, Im sure nobody else done that before.

 

[Fx]

Eh, this doesn't affect me enough to entice me to subscribe. This thread actually got me to thinking what exactly do I play of EA and it turns out not a lot. Only games I ever played was:

Dragon Age
Dead Space
Command & Conquer
Crysis
Dark Age of Camelot
Kingdoms of Amalur
LotR
SimCity

It turns out, anything I was ever interested in has long been dead.

Thanks EA, but I really don't care about your program.

 

[Readlight]

Usually, their games buy only those who are hyped by marketing, who likes sport (and evil things) who is first time in video games who think consoles are simpler and cheaper. and they all are gamblers and addicts. Fortnite is perfect bait who will destroy many lives because after that they will be nothing in the real world