EA pulls the plug on their ‘On the House’ free game service

EA have cancelled their ‘On the House’ free game service that was a perk for Origin Access members. The service dolled out some quality titles throughout its lifespan including Mass Effect 2, Battlefield 3, Dead Space and more. Unfortunately that stream of free games has abruptly ended.

Without releasing any kind of statement, EA has pulled the plug on ‘On the House’. In fact the entire ‘On the House’ page has been removed, now redirecting to the Origin Access subscription page. So what’s with the sudden change of heart?

In an interview with Polygon, a spokesperson for EA gave the following statement:

“Origin On the House has been retired and games will no longer be offered through the program. This change won’t affect any games players downloaded from the service prior to that date — those are theirs to keep forever.”

Unfortunately the spokesperson didn’t elaborate on why the service was shut down or provide any additional information.

Interestingly, ‘On the House’ is ending just days before Origin Access Premier launches (see above). Premier is a monthly subscription that gives PC players access to all EA games as they release, early access to new release titles, as well as access to all EA ‘vault’ games. Safe to say the cancellation of ‘On the House’ may have something to do with Premier.

EA definitely hasn’t been the most liked company over the last decade or so. And with the sudden loss of ‘On the House’ they may just be finding themselves with even less fans.