Now this is a shock: EA recently announced that the Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) catalog is coming to Origin Access. This makes WBIE the first major publisher outside of the EA family to bring their games to EA’s vault.
WBIE’s Batman, Lord of the Rings, and various LEGO titles have been available on Steam for a number of years now. Initially, it appears that only the Batman titles will be appearing on EA’s service, although it’s difficult to believe that it will end with those. The two Middle-Earth games from Monolith Productions are notable exclusions, since those games have been significant critical and sales hits for both WBIE and Monolith.
The WBIE games immediately entering The Vault are Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, LEGO Batman, LEGO Batman 2, and LEGO Batman 3. Other non-WBIE games being added to The Vault soon are The Wigness, Out of the Park Baseball 19, Lost Castle, Bulletstorm – Lite, and Wasteland 2.
Origin Access is EA’s subscription service that works with their Origin digital platform. Subscribers receive access to unlimited play and downloads of any games in The Vault, which includes most of EA’s PC compatible back catalog, along with the just announced WBIE games. In conjunction with the big announcement of this partnership with WBIE, EA is offering new users a one week free trial of the service.
When a subscription expires, any games that users have downloaded remain on their systems. It’s perfectly possible for someone to try out the free trial, get partway through one of the Batman games, then allow the subscription to lapse until a more convenient time, then pick up the progress right where it was left off.
For more information, head on over to the Origin Access website.
