EA adds WBIE to Origin Access

Electronic Arts is bringing the competition into its all-you-can-play subscription game service, Origin Access. The company today announced six games from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have been added to its Vault selection of free downloadable titles for subscribers, making WBIE the first major publisher to add its titles to EA's offering.

The first WBIE titles to hit the service include the first three Batman Arkham games (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Origins), as well as Lego Batman 1-3. EA also said it is adding more independently developed games to the Origin Access catalog in the near future, including The Witness, Wasteland 2, Lost Castle, and Out of the Park Baseball 19.

EA has been a vocal advocate of subscription models, saying they will be "a great disruptor" in the games industry and part of the recipe for "uncapped monetization" of players. Its own efforts in the field date back to 2011 with the Season Ticket program for its core EA Sports franchises, giving players early access to the games and discounts on microtransactions and DLC. In 2014, it rolled out an EA Access subscription program exclusively on Xbox One, and then adapted it to the PC audience with Origin Access two years after that.

Origin Access subscriptions are available for $5 a month, or $30 for a year-long commitment.