Very quietly, EA has amended the terms of its EA / Origin Access programs on Xbox One and PC to make a major exclusion. EA has explicitly omitted Titanfall 2 from the EA / Origin Access program which means that the game won’t be available to Access subscribers prior to the game’s release in October.

The EA / Origin Access program is a $5 per month subscription (or $30 per year on Xbox One) that allows gamers access to specified games in the EA Vault to be played in full and giving a 10% discount on digital purchases of EA games through the Xbox Store or Origin. The big feature of the Access program is the pre-release trial of new EA releases. Typically, the trials are 10 hours in length starting five days before release.

Titanfall 2 developer Respawn confirmed to Game Reactor that Titanfall 2 would not be a part of the Access program on either Xbox One or PC. While the 10% discount on buying the game will put a larger than anticipated dent in some gamers pockets, it’s the lack of a free trial that is the biggest issue for gamers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that few gamers were really impressed with the beta weekends of Titanfall 2. Chief among complaints was that the pilots and titans had small health pools. Some went as far as to say that a duel between pilots always came down to who saw the other first because killing them is so easy. Anti-titan weapons and “rodeo” attacks are claimed to be overpowered because of a change to titan shields. One member of the press also had an issue with the maps in the beta claiming that they neutered parkour which was a key feature in the marketing of Titanfall 1.

The problem with removing the game from EA / Origin Access isn’t the lack of discount on purchase or that it won’t be free in the vault in future, it’s the loss of that free trial. EA is leaving players the option of buying it sight unseen or trusting reviews (which happened at a special review event rather than in the live environment for Titanfall 1). It’s not unprecedented for EA to make specific exemptions for its policies. EA’s Good Games Guarantee, the Origin refund policy for EA games, reportedly didn’t apply to Battlefield 4 which was in a terrible technical state at launch. That history has gamers rightly concerned that EA is trying to hide information about Titanfall 2 so pre-orders aren’t cancelled and launch day orders go through without a second thought. It’s also being sent out to die one week after Battlefield 1 releases and one week before Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare drops.

Titanfall 2 comes out on October 28th for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. We’ll see if any more info is released between now and then.

Sources: Game Reactor, Electronic Arts

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