Rumors circulating the internet have postulated that Electronic Arts is preparing for a return to Steam. First discovered by Twitter user lashman, Dragon Age 2 received an update to its executable that would also launch Origins upon booting up the game.

looks like EA are indeed getting ready to come back to steam

🙂 pic.twitter.com/p5KVTlu40c

— lashman (@RobotBrush) October 22, 2019

The Nerd Mag investigation confirmed the update had indeed taken place. Along with Saboteur, a game EA previously had available on steam appears to be undergoing beta testing for a suspected relaunch.

Ultimately their investigation turned up Mirror’s Edge Catalyst appearing in the new Steam UI screenshot. While the outlet does propose this could be a game independently added to steams new UI update, it is highly unlikely Valve would have chosen a title that was critically panned and was a commercial failure for more successful titles and relevant titles like Dragon Age Inquisition, Apex Legends, or Epic’s Fornite to highlight the functionality.

For this rumor to be true we would need to see Electronic Arts further preparing other already existing titles on Steam for integration. That is exactly what we are seeing with the Command and Conquer franchise on Steam, as all of the titles have received fresh updates over the last four months. With no description being made available for any of the updates it is unknown whether they are gearing the titles up for a relaunch or were instead making moderate tweaks in relation to multiplayer or other file adjustments.

With several high level departures and declining sales (as well as under-performing blockbusters) it is likely that executives who pushed the hardest for an Origin-only model are no longer employed at the company or Electronic Arts has reached the juncture where they can no longer afford not have access to Steam’s vastly larger market share.

Whichever the case right now the evidence suggests Electronic Arts is making a return to steam. Now if they’d only make a return to making games people want to play instead of relying on gambling to stay in business that would truly be great.