EA Access On Steam: EA's Best Move Yet?

EA'S HISTORY AS "THE WORST GAME COMPANY EVER"

    If there is one thing that has become a meme and a laughing stock in the video game market, it's Electronic Arts. For a long while, they've made many mistakes to ruin their image and thus have become the catalyst of terrible business practices, with micro-transactions, lackluster content in games, and giving players the middle finger as they ask for better games with less bugs and no micro transactions. This has gone on for a good long while that people were over all this nonsense.

    Games like Mass Effect: Andromeda and Star Wars Battlefront 2, to name a few, had fallen victim to EA's bad practices, despite that they're not the only publishers to rush development of games to make a quick buck and give everyone their paychecks or anything they've garnered that's slowly dying out by this day and age. Where EA simply went down the toilet was with the release of Command & Conquer: Rivals on mobile platforms, a game I have not played and never will as it just seemed they weren't even trying at that point. It played and looked so lifeless that it was as if EA made this to spite C&C fans. If that wasn't bad enough, Star Wars Battlefront 2 was a wild game for forcing governments to step up to the plate and put their foot down on all the micro-transactions the game was plagued with, which in many ways harmed the game so badly, EA and DICE completely retooled the progression system so that you don't have to pay to win. In general, the 2010s was most certainly EA's worst period in their history and it amazes me that they're still kicking given their horrible reputation. If EA getting the worst game company award twice in a row didn't spell disaster for them, everyone had the impression they were not gonna recover after all the hell they've put themselves in. That's not to say it was an entirely bad age for EA, but their decisions are what made them a terrible business.

    Thankfully, this age of EA's obnoxious greediness and awful business practices are (slowly, but surely) a thing of a past, for they have recently shown that they are willing to give fans something they want or just simply make better decisions that will appease the anger fans have held for years. Fast forward beyond Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019 getting rave reviews and spoken in reverence by players, Star Wars Battlefront 2 gets its last content update, making it the best it has ever been, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection makes it's big splash on Steam as EA's next big game in their catalog, and EA Access finally coming to Steam for the first time! Since around 2011, EA games have been gone from the face of Steam for nearly a decade, until recently starting with the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order where EA has decided to partner up with Valve to get their games on Steam so everyone can play them. I will admit I still don't have terribly bright impressions of EA, but it is good to know they are doing an unprecedented, but welcomed and commendable, effort to listen to the fans.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR EA GAMES?

    If you were hoping they would not only break out new releases, but also old games as well, you'll be happy to know EA is willing to get their whole catalog of games on Steam via EA Access. They're getting it all, from Mirror's Edge, to Battlefield 3, Burnout: Paradise Remastered, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Unravel, Crysis 3, and the list goes on. While EA hasn't released every game on Steam at the time of this article's writing, it does not guarantee that they will release every game under their belt. Some games will require a remaster or so to run better on Windows 10 and modern gen consoles, including 1080p upscaling, better framerates, better looking visuals, and the kitchen sink. Not to say that ports aren't viable, but remasters of older games, in my opinion, are a much better way to reintroduce a game or franchise to new audiences while giving veteran players a chance to re-experience them all over again. I've gone on about this for a little bit, but I believe you get the point.

    So what will this mean for EA games in general? Again, not every game will make their way to Steam, but it will allow players to get back into these franchises they may have been wanting to be released on Steam for nearly a decade (yes, I'm aware they were already released on PC, but many of these games were only exclusive to EA Origin for a long while). On top of that, it could be possible that games with multiplayer would have cross play between Steam and Origin, though it will be rather rocky if they don't take the time to polish it to the best of their ability, as the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 tried to do cross play between Steam and GOG, but it didn't work out so great from what I've heard. Lastly, this could pave the way for sequels or brand new IPs that could make their way to both Origin and Steam, so now you can have the option to buy these games on Steam or Origin.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE BUYING

    Before you get excited and go out and buy these games on Steam, there are a few little tidbits to EA Access:

• Some games will require 3rd party DRM
• You will need an EA Account to play these games (you can link your Steam account to do this)
• You are able to buy and play some of these games before they are officially released

    I will say that I do despise 3rd Party DRM, since it's more or less just an extra hurtle to jump over when you want to play a game. If games need 3rd party DRM, however, it at least needs to be functional and it should NOT require over an hour of looping around to fix what should work in the first place. Needless to say, I'm somewhat fearful to try out Origin, but I'll just hope that it won't be a horrible experience.

    So with EA going down the path they're on now, this could either be a whole new beginning or something that will turn into a shattered dream. I'm hopeful it's the former, but you never know when they could screw up yet again. Whatever the case, here's hoping for a bright future and an amazing comeback from EA. They may have been doing far better than before, but they've still got a long way to go before they can achieve true greatness. For the time being, all we can do now is be hopeful that this is the beginning of a renaissance for EA.