So far, there are only about a dozen games from their library that are available for use with some glaring exceptions. Of the titles available, one can play any of the Dragon Age games, a selection of Battlefield titles, the Dead Space series, Need for Speed Rivals, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, FIFA '15, Sim City, and The Sims 3. So, there are some glaring omissions, such as the entire Mass Effect series, but the company says that more games will be added to the service in the future.
With us living in a world where many people have gotten into the habit of buy games on Steam simply because they're cheap, and then never actually playing them, I wonder if this may actually be a decent alternative. Paying a few bucks a month simply for access to games and playing them at one's leisure seems a reasonable way of going instead of just scooping something up and possibly not playing it ever.
That being said, the service could still stand to be improved in some ways, of course. As it stands, there's only a monthly payment option as opposed to a discounted annual one. A lot of folks do like to pay once yearly, especially if they make a lot of use of the service. Outlets like Netflix and Crunchyroll are good examples of places that have benefited from this. Also, we'll need to see more games be made available before it really catches on, I think. Expanding the sports games selection seems like a no-brainer in that regard.
I'm also curious how EA will handle adding highly anticipated newer titles to the service. Will they be delayed with people purchasing them first alongside all of the season passes and what not for big bucks, and only after that cohort of consumers have been bled dry will it be added to Origin Access? Notice that Star Wars Battlefront isn't on the service. There's probably more money to be made from traditional sales avenues on that game, so EA may be holding off on that one and I could see the same thing happening when Mirror's Edge Catalyst comes along.
This is something that I could see potentially revitalizing somewhat older online games with dwindling player bases as well. How many people will install some iteration of Battlefield that is available on the subscription and give it a go just for the hell of it? Assuming EA has the wherewithall to provide basic support on those games, I could see some people sticking with them. It could even breath some new life into games like Titan Fall and Syndicate too if they get added to Access.
As much as some people like to poo-poo EA and their business practices (and really, much of the time it's totally deserved), I can see this service being pretty good if the company supports it well. Games are becoming more and more commoditized all the time now, so a switch from straight up buying them to a subscription model for access to them could well be embraced by a sizable number of people. This all leaves me wondering if / when Access will come to the PS4.
