EA’s new PC app, designed to return to its Origin platform, is now available to download, announced Thursday.
According to EA’s blog post, this new app offers a “faster, more reliable, and more streamlined gaming experience,” with features like automatic game downloads and background updates.
At least for now, it’s only unrestricted on PC. MacOS players will still have to employ Origin.
For players currently using Origin, you’ll “soon” be invited to switch over. “By the time you accept your invite, all your games and content, including games previously installed, will be scheduled and waiting for you on the EA app,” EA says. Saves and your friend list will transfer over as well. But if you don’t like to wait, you can now download the app from EA’s website.
The app has been arriving for a long time, as EA announced that it would replace Origin with this new one a little over two years ago. EA has slowly been distancing itself from the Origin branding, like when it rebranded its EA Access and Origin Access services under the EA Play banner.
Origin isn’t dead yet, since macOS players will still have to utilize the Origin app to play their games. There’s no exact timeline for if or when that might change, but “as things develop, we’ll have more data to share in the coming months,” EA says in a separate blog post.
Origin is a digital distribution forum created by Electronic Arts for purchasing and playing video games. In addition, the platform’s software customer is available for personal computers and mobile outlets.
Origin contains social components like profile management, networking with friends with chat and direct game joining, and an in-game overlay streaming via Twitch. In addition, it helps share game libraries and community integration with networking sites like Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Facebook, and Nintendo Network. In 2011, Electronic Arts stated that it enjoyed Origin to match Valve’s Steam service, Origin’s primary competitor, by adding cloud game reserves, auto-patching, achievements, and cross-platform releases. By 2013, Origin had around 50 million registered users.
EA began phasing out the Origin customer with a new EA app for Windows beginning in October 2022 to integrate the Origin service into the EA Play subscription model.