14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts and Valve announced a new partnership that will see the former's games distributed through Steam. The collaboration between the two companies will debut next month when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will release on Steam.
Starting next spring, EA Access, the publisher's subscription service, will be making its way to Steam, as the first and only gaming subscription service available on the digital store, and the fourth platform featuring an EA subscription.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is now available for pre-order on Steam before its launch on November 15. In the coming months, players will be able to play other major titles such as The Sims 4 and Unravel Two. Starting 2020, multiplayer games like Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V will be available through Steam, and players on both Origin and Steam will be able to play together.
“At the core, we are game makers, and our aspiration is to connect as many people as we can to the great games that we built and make it as frictionless as possible for them to do that. So with more players playing more games and more platforms, frankly, we want to be where the players are,” said Mike Blank, senior vice president at EA.
Currently, EA Access offers access to around 80 games on Xbox One, about 40 on PlayStation 4 and 235 on PC (247 for EA Access Premiere). It's unclear how many of these titles will be available on Steam, but the EA Access price will remain the same: $4.99 a month or $29.99 annually.
No details about the financial aspect of the partnership have been disclosed, so we don't know whether or not EA has reached specific terms with Valve regarding the percentage it takes from Steam sales. However, Mike Blank did mention that “it's a new way of working with Valve.”