EA Play Steam has approximately 80% fewer games than EA Play Origin

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EA Play is the new subscription service which replaces of Origin Access as of August 31, 2020. The biggest new change is that players now have a choice between subscribing to the service on either Steam or Origin.

However the choice is nowhere near equivalent despite the fact that EA Play costs the same amount on both platforms: $4.99 per month / $29.99 per year. However there is a vast discrepancy between the numbers of games available for each:

• EA Play (Origin) currently counts approximately 216 games
• EA Play (Steam) currently counts approximately 47 games

These figures constitute a drop of approximately 78% and the numbers are based on our tracking list of games on our 'Availability' table, which is subject to change. Furthermore these numbers will change in the future as games are removed and added to the service. EA state that EA Play Steam will be receiving these new games in the future:

 

One might think that the remedy to this is to simply pay for EA Play on Steam and then switch to the Origin platform. However on the EA Play FAQ, EA state that the subscription service is exclusive to the platform being joined on. Therefore subscribing to EA Play on Steam won't transfer the same subscription to Origin (or any other console), see:

 

The main issue with the marketing of EA Play is that the list of games available vastly differs based on the platform, console and even what country you are in - and there isn't a simple list to compare one set of games to the other. Instead the lists are presented as large thumbnails which requires the user to press 'Load More', which give the impression of a huge number of games. Better would be to list them in a clear table, as PCGamingWiki has done here, which makes it very clear that the much more cost-effective subscription is only available on Origin.

 

Sources:

• Steam's EA Play library once subscribed screenshot.
• EA Play Origin's 'The Play List' screenshot.