Major Origin Update Rolling Out Now, Brings Twitch Livestreaming

Electronic Arts has just confirmed that it would soon release a major update for its Origin digital distribution service on the PC platform, which includes two major features: integration with popular livestreaming service Twitch and the possibility of adding non-Origin games to the service’s client.

Origin was released over a year ago and, despite the fact that lots of PC gamers are loyal to Valve’s Steam, the digital distribution service quickly grew in popularity and now boasts millions of users all around the world.

In order to make the service even more appealing, EA has begun rolling out a new update for the Origin client, which includes two impressive features: the ability to instantly livestream your play session on popular website Twitch, and the possibility of adding games onto your Origin library that aren’t sold through the service.

Check out the descriptions of the new features and the other upgrades brought forth by the patch below, via EA’s official website.

Twitch Broadcasting

We’re proud to announce that Origin is partnering with Twitch, and today we’re launching phase one of this integration. With a few clicks of your mouse, you can now broadcast your gaming session live, directly to your Twitch channel, for gamers around the world to view. With the combined power of Origin and Twitch, it’s never been easier to take your own gameplay online, in real-time.

Adding Non-Origin Games

Another new feature we’ve implemented is the ability to add games purchased outside of Origin to your My Games library. Now you can launch (and broadcast) all your games from a single convenient location.

Additional Upgrades

Adding non-Origin games to your library and integrating Twitch are the two big features in this release, but we’ve made a number of optimizations and small tweaks to the client as well. Your Friends List should now load faster and feel more responsive; we’ve also implemented a change that will let you stretch the Friends List horizontally to accommodate long IDs, status updates, and real names. Right-clicking on Origin in your task bar will now display more options, like recently played games. We improved overall client performance to quicken load times at launch and elsewhere. And, we’ve built-in a feedback survey—because we love to hear from you.

The update for Origin is currently being rolled out to beta participants and will be offered to regular users in the following days.

What do you think about these new features for Origin? Is the integrated livestreaming function something you’re interested in?