EA Origin Access Premier paves the way for more day-and-date game releases for service subscribers

EA is following Microsoft’s path with its new subscription service, Origin Access Premier, which will give access to EA new releases on PC on launch day.

Announced during its annual EA Play conference at E3, Origin Access Premier will allow players to try upcoming EA games before release, with the full game unlocking to subscribers about a week before the public launch. Origin Access Premier will set consumers back £14.99 a month, which is slightly more expensive than Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service (£9.99 per month).

So far, four games have been confirmed to release on Origin Access Premier: Madden NFL 19 from August 2nd (which marks the return of the franchise to PC for the first time since 2007), FIFA 19 from September 20th, Battlefield V from October 11th and Anthem from February 15th (with the official release date for the title also revealed during the conference: February 22nd).

Origin Access Premier will also give access to EA’s back catalogue titles available on The Vault (over 100 games) and will give customers ten per cent off all games available to purchase on Origin. Alongside this announcement, EA also revealed it will launch a streaming service later in the year, though very few details were revealed.

Origin Access Premier is set to launch this summer, with the exact release date to be revealed later. After Microsoft, EA is the second publisher to announce this type of service, giving online access to new titles to subscribers on launch date, and we fully expect more publishers to follow this trend.