Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is just over two weeks from its much anticipated launch, and with that comes the typical launch trailer. The bigger news with that, though, is EA's announcement that their games will be returning to Steam, beginning with Jedi Fallen Order on November 15.
Following a tease over the weekend, today EA has lifted the lid off their plans to join Steam once again, after years of making their games exclusive to their proprietary launcher, Origin. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order marks the first new EA game to hit Steam since 2011. Future new releases from EA are planned to join Steam at launch. Additionally, recent releases from the past few years will be migrating to Steam, such as the never-ending The Sims 4, co-op platformer Unravel Two, returning juggernauts FIFA 20 and Battlefield V, as well as the early 2019 hotness, Apex Legends. Purchases made on Origin will not transfer to Steam, and vice versa, though the publisher says they are working on allowing for crossplay among players from each storefront.
Notably, this return to Steam begins just one week after EA's other big holiday title, Need for Speed Heat, hits stores. EA has not yet mentioned whether Heat will make a delayed return to Valve's storefront, though they did announce EA Access, the console subscription service that houses most of EA's games from this generation, will be headed to Steam.
Not to be confused with the more robust Origin Access, which offers over 230 games, EA Access on Xbox One offers about 80 games, with half as many on PS4 where it just arrived to the platform in July after years of Xbox exclusivity. Pricing will remain the same at $4.99/month or $29.99/year. The full lineup of EA Access games on Steam has not yet been revealed.
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is the latest in EA's troubled attempt to leave its mark as one of the few game publishers working with the Star Wars license. DICE's Battlefront series went from good to worse following the sequel's pay-to-win tactics in the game at launch. EA quietly cancelled the Boba Fett vehicle Star Wars 1313 following its 2012 reveal. More recently and publicly, they also canned Amy Hennig and Visceral's Star Wars project, codenamed Ragtag, which was meant to give the famous Lucas universe an Uncharted-like flair.
Recent hands-on previews with Jedi Fallen Order have been very positive and it comes from EA's most consistent studio, Respawn Entertainment. We'll know more about Jedi Fallen Order when the review embargo is lifted in November.
