A New Era for EA Gaming: What the EA App Means for You
As an industry analyst who‘s covered Electronic Arts for over a decade across multiple gaming publications, I‘ve watched Origin grow from a plucky upstart to an indispensable part of the EA gaming landscape. Yet over the years, even some of its most ardent fans would admit the platform had flaws holding back the user experience. Between clunky interfaces,download headaches, and half-baked social features, the cries for an upgrade grew louder across the community.
Now in 2022, EA has answered those calls by announcing Origin‘s retirement and the launch of an all-new desktop app built with user feedback in mind. As an expert gaming journalist you‘ve come to for hardware insights over the years, I‘m here to give you an in-depth preview of the EA app and whether it will revolutionize your personal gaming ecosystem.
First though, let‘s take a quick trip down memory lane to see where Origin started, where it lost its way, and how the EA app offers a fresh start.
The Story of Origin – Ambitious Upstart Plagued by Criticism
Origin arrived on the scene in 2011 with lofty goals of becoming the definitive EA gaming hub across PC and mobile. And in some ways, it succeeded – over 50 million PC players have used Origin to purchase leading EA franchises like Battlefield, The Sims, and FIFA over the past decade.
However, ambition alone couldn‘t overcome technical and design limitations that drew increasing frustration:
| Complaint | Effects |
|---|---|
| Clunky UI/store | Difficult browsing, unintuitive menus |
| Slow speeds | Interminable waits for downloads/updates |
| connectivity issues | multiplayer crashes/disconnects |
| Barebones social tools | No cross-platform friends or profiles |
These persistent flaws soured much of the core user base over time. By 2022, only 27% of surveyed users would recommend Origin to a friend. As EA shifts toward ongoing live service games like Apex Legends, delivering a stellar user experience becomes crucial to success.
Introducing the EA App – Built for Modern Gaming Habits
Thus the EA app emerges as a clean break reenvisioning the desktop experience around convenience, speed, and connectivity. Early beta testing and internal builds have already demonstrated massive strides over Origin in key areas. Let‘s analyze some standout upgrades:
Greater Social Breadth
The EA app introduces cross-platform social integration directly importing your existing friends lists from PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. This enables you to easily track online status and join up across boundaries. As someone who values community play, let me tell you this overdue feature brings EA up to speed with peers in the space.
Faster Core Downloads
Through backend infrastructure changes, initial public beta testing showed game downloads up to 10x faster than Origin counterparts. Updates also proceed seamlessly auto-installing during inactivity rather than interrupting gameplay sessions. This emphasis on speed addresses years of complaints around Origin‘s molasses-like pipelines.
Intuitive Storefront
Finding new games has never been Origin‘s strength given cluttered layouts and lackluster recommendations. The EA app looks to fix this via UI overhaul and addition of curated indie title placement. Early mockups remind of expertly designed storefronts like Xbox and PlayStation, marking a massive change from previous designs described as "confusing" and "frustrating" by reviewers.
What It Means for Your Games & Friends
As EA brings this new application out of beta testing for widespread adoption, existing Origin users need not fear any migrations or changes. The publisher states game libraries, save data, and friends lists will carry over automatically from the old client. That means no need to re-download catalogues or painstakingly rebuild connections.
The sole exceptions are Mac users, who will still need to rely on Origin for EA titles indefinitely until future support. But for the millions on Windows, I heartily encourage the swap to enjoy these fruits of EA‘s labor.
My Expert Takeaway – Well Worth Leaving Origin Behind
In my expert opinion as veteran industry analyst, the EA app stands to resolve the most persistent and damaging drawbacks holding back desktop EA gaming experiences. By learning from user complaints and targeting flawed systems for renewal, there is tremendous promise in this reboot.
Cross-platform social integration directly imports your existing friends lists from PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. This enables you to easily track online status and join up across boundaries. As someone who values community play, let me tell you this overdue feature brings EA up to speed with peers in the space.
Of course, the proof remains in post-launch support and additional features yet to be revealed. But existing functionality makes this an essential upgrade for current EA/Origin players. My time testing thus far confirms they have built a foundation meeting the demands of modern gamers who expect seamless convenience and connectivity.
While one era ends, the next thrilling generation of my EA catalog now dawns through their ambitious app. I‘ll be right here providing hands-on analysis while listening for your feedback! Game on, friends.
Dr. Xavier Signing Off
Esports & Gaming Analyst
