Electronic Arts is playing favorites yet again as it raises prices on PC games, but only on Steam.
Since launching its own online marketplace Origin, EA has made it the more attractive offer for fans of its games. In late 2019, the company finally brought its PC titles back to Steam after previously only selling them through Origin. It offered players more choice in how and where they bought games, but the price of some EA’s older releases went up in certain regions without a clear explanation.
The third-party website SteamDB, which tracks Steam game data (including prices) found price increases in Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Beyond the price jumps limited to certain areas, the changes were inconsistent as Brazil’s price more than doubled and Canada’s rose only slightly.
Games affected include the Mass Effect Collection and Crysis 2: Maximum Edition. Despite releasing in 2011, the game’s price shot up in Brazil threefold and doubled in Russia. Previously, its price dropped during sales but otherwise remained steady, as is typical for most games.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the newest Electronic Arts games to release on Steam and has not seen a price increase. The game was a major sales success and beat EA’s expectations.
The changes also have not affected the United States, so American players who prefer the Steam ecosystem should be able to keep purchasing EA games there without paying extra.
For international players, however, Origin is currently a better option. It hasn’t seen any of the price adjustments seen on Steam, and it has a far larger selection of EA games. This will change in 2020 as EA continues releasing titles such as Battlefield V and FIFA 20 on Steam, which are only playable on Origin right now. Once on Steam, the game will offer cross-play between gamers on Steam and Origin.
Even as EA brings more titles to Steam, other major publishers are moving toward competitors like the Epic Games Store. Ubisoft notably released The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the Epic Games Store in place of Steam. Steam remains extremely popular, however, and hit a record 18.8 million concurrent players on February 3. The last record was set in 2018 before Epic Games Store launched and began drawing away Steam’s business.
