Back at E3 2018, Electronic Arts announced a new service that would let players access their Origin Vault and play over 100 different games for a monthly fee of $14.99. Today, it was revealed that the service will be going live on July 30, but when they made this announcement, it was also noticed that on the same day, EA quietly discontinued something else. What that turned out to be was their On the House program, which used to offer free games each month to users. These free titles ranged from Battlefield 3, to Peggle, to Sims 2 and all its expansions, and nearly 35 others throughout On the House's 4 year run. Now, when you visit the old On the House link, it redirects you to a page where you can purchase a subscription for Origin Access instead, and has been officially stated by EA to no longer be active. The last game they offered was Peggle, earlier this year.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I got a ton of free games over the years, been collecting them for a while. Here's what I acquired:

(I only bought Alice and Dead Space on Steam, the rest were FREE)


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Theme hospital was a lot of fun. I used to play it on PlayStation all the time. I wish I would’ve know this even started. Wait! I don’t even game on pc anyway. :/

 

[Jayro]

Theme hospital was a lot of fun. I used to play it on PlayStation all the time. I wish I would’ve know this even started. Wait! I don’t even game on pc anyway. :/

Wolfenstein 3D got me started on PC gaming... Then Half-Life and Doom hooked me, reeled me in, and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch kept me baited. TF2 as well.

 

[Cubuss]

I got a ton of free games over the years, been collecting them for a while. Here's what I acquired:

(I only bought Alice and Dead Space on Steam, the rest were FREE)


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Get on my level noob,

 

[Noctosphere]

I'm not sure to get it
I was Origin Acces member for a year in the past few years
it's not something new
Plus, I paid 5CAD/month, not 15USD
wtf is that?

 

[ChrisMCNBVA]

I had origin for a while when andromeda was announced and I finally got tired of the game, I loved it for quite a while. I finally had to contact them online to help me close my ea account. It was sooooo much hassle. I'm glad to be rid of it.

 

[Kwyjor]

These free titles ranged from Battlefield 3, to Peggle, to Sims 2 and all its expansions, and nearly 35 others throughout On the House's 4 year run.

I was thinking that number was inflated – they definitely weren't offering a unique game every month – but no, somehow I have 38 unique games total in my library, and I'm pretty sure I didn't pay for any of them. I sure haven't played any of them. Strangely enough, you could redeem the same game multiple times – I have two copies of Bejeweled 3 and three copies of Peggle.

Such a shame, what happened to ol' Popcap; they got thoroughly snuffed. (Remember to change your desktop resolution to something with a 4:3 ratio before starting their games; the scaling gets all messed up otherwise.) FYI, Octogeddon – from the designer of PvsZ – finally came out recently.

 

[aaronz77]

They had to have something to encourage people to install Origin. Now. they either start giving away the same games over again or cut into their profits (of games that already make money). Instead of getting bad PR they hoped to quietly kill it.

 

[the_randomizer]

EA had free games?

 

[Dimensional]

I'm glad. They kept offering only the same 3 games to me on On The House, and I already had them. They are cheap, and they are still the Worst Company in the world, beating Bank of America.

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They had to have something to encourage people to install Origin. Now. they either start giving away the same games over again or cut into their profits (of games that already make money). Instead of getting bad PR they hoped to quietly kill it.

From my perspective, that's what they were doing with OtH in the first place. I only ever saw 3 games being offered over and over again during it's time, and I got them the first time around. EA only cares about cash, but don't care about their customers.

 

[Pluupy]

And so goes away the reason to touch Origin at all.

 

[p1ngpong]

EA had free games?

Yes they did, tons in fact. Unlike Nintendo who sell you the same rom three times over because they are greedy and completely inept at maintaining a shopfront across their systems.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yes they did, tons in fact. Unlike Nintendo who sell you the same rom three times over because they are greedy and completely inept at maintaining a shopfront across their systems.

Heh, I won't argue on that; it's most of the reason I haven't given two shits about the NES, Arcade Classics, etc games on the Switch. I was also being a smartass in my earlier comments, a thousand pardons.

 

[Dominator211]

Yes it was quite Nice i did get a few good ones for free. I guess EA needed more money so they closed down on the house instead of porting to switch

 

[Xabring]

I got a ton of free games over the years, been collecting them for a while. Here's what I acquired:

(I only bought Alice and Dead Space on Steam, the rest were FREE)


View attachment 137304

I got twice the peblee somehow.

A humble bundle I guess, but yeah, I got the game too from the on the house. shame I couldn't get moar games but well, at least I get to keep'em

 

[codezer0]

Nothing was going to ever induce me to install origin, for as miserable as it was as a client. Only bothered to give swtor a shot because it was possible to run without interfacing with origin at all. Most all the games i would have maybe had on Origin, i would have gotten or already had on steam. So i had very little reason to consider them. Less still, when even now the eula mentions that any form of account moderation gets you locked out of all your games on your account. Not even Uplay has such language in their terms. And given the debacle that was of so many people getting banned and locked out of their games when nobody ever could play that online only sims game, i definitely didn't want to give ea that satisfaction.

 

[BiggieCheese]

On the House was okay at first, but it definitely hit its peak early on after Battlefield 3 was given away on it, there were some good games on it afterward but it dwindled down pretty quickly. The last several months were just EA repeating the same games they had already given away in the past.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Rip. I liked it.

 

[nryn99]

Didn't know that NFS Most Wanted was given away for free.
I'm sad that I missed it.