In an unexpected move, EA has chosen to make Battlefield 5 free to play to all subscribers of Origin Access Basic; the company’s monthly subscription service. Of course, the service does already offer access to plenty of other games. However, Battlefield 5 is a much more recent release than most other available titles. However, the decision does also make sense given both the game’s past, and its potential future.
EA Has Made Battlefield 5 Free With Origin Access Basic
When Battlefield 5 launched, sales were hampered by bugs and several poor pre-release marketing and promotional decisions. Months later, although the game had still seemingly performed quite well with 7.3 million copies sold, EA stated that the game had nevertheless failed to meet its sales targets. Now, EA is making Battlefield 5 free with Origin Access Basic. While it’s not unusual for certain games to eventually shift to a free-to-play model (Destiny 2 recently announced such a transition), this isn’t quite that. The game will still be available for purchase outside of Origin Access.
Battlefield 5 currently has a lot more content available in-game than it did when it launched; the work of three major post-launch content release Chapters. Indeed, EA has announced details for two more upcoming Chapters; ones which look set to include even more content than those which came before. As such, it seems that EA may now be looking at Battlefield 5 as something not dissimilar to Apex Legends; a game which potentially has a very long-term content release schedule, supported by micro-transaction sales. (And in Battlefield 5’s case, subscription fees.) Respawn recently revealed that the studio has no plans to ever make an Apex Legends sequel, but that they are planning years ahead already with new content releases.
In the case of Battlefield 5, the game won’t exactly be free-to-play, as mentioned above. Gamers will still need to be subscribers to Origin Access Basic, which costs $5 per month. The reason for this shift, in addition to shifting Battlefield over to a longer-term, revenue-generating service, may be due to the upcoming content release schedule. With major new content releases upcoming (all of which will be free), this shift is a major incentive for players to sign up to Origin Access Basic. Certainly, Chapters 4 and 5 are likely to boost sales of the game. After all, fans have been hoping for a return to the Pacific Theatre for quite some time.