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EA’s Origin Access adds other publishers’ games, including ‘Batman: Arkham City’

Batman: Arkham City

Electronic Arts’ Origin Access subscription program gives members free and unlimited access to many of the publisher’s biggest games, including Titanfall 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and The Sims 4, but the program is widening its scope. Now, you will have free access to games from different game publishers, with Warner Bros. Interactive the first to jump on board.

Starting Thursday, March 8, Origin Access subscribers have access to six Batman titles, including all three Lego Batman games and the first three Batman: Arkham games — Batman: Arkham Knight is not included. In the future, The Witness, Out of the Park Baseball 19, Lost Castle, Wasteland 2, and the “Lite” version of Bulletstorm will also be added.

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Out of the Park 19 is actually a new game that EA is distributing through its Origin service to all players, but the publisher doesn’t typically make its new games available for free via Origin Access right away.

A number of older games are also available as part of the Origins Access Vault, including several Ultima titles, four Wing Commander games, and Jade Empire. Smaller games from indie developers like Oxenfree and This War of Mine are also available, so you won’t only have AAA-blockbuster experiences to choose from, and you can play the entire Vault regardless of when you sign up.

If you’re on the fence about an Origins Access subscription, you can try it out during a seven-day trial from now through March 26. In addition to the free games available through the Vault, the program also gives you early access to many of EA’s new games, and the progress you make typically carries over to the full game if you go ahead and buy it. Right now, Need for Speed Payback and FIFA 18 have 10-hour trials available, as well, in case you just want to test those games.

EA has a similar program available on Xbox One called “EA Access.” It functions similarly, with many of the same games available, but the indies are nowhere to be found. This is likely because those games are eligible for inclusion in Microsoft’s own Games With Gold program, which is free to anyone with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

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