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The Origin launcher made by Electronic Arts (EA) has been out for a decade, but there is an early indication that the launcher could be closed down. This comes as an indirect hint over a development in the Humble store that has caused some concern for gamers. While it doesn't impact Humble Choice or bundle products, players are now contemplating the future of Origin.
Launched in 2011, Origin has been one of the different ways via which gamers can acquire and play EA products. While the launcher on its own is alright, there have been hints for some time. The hints indicate that EA wants to close down the service soon. If this indeed happens, Origin could follow the same path as Bethesda's launcher, which is reportedly closing in 2022.
Humble gives a deadline to gamers to redeem their Origin keys
Based on a post by Humble support, players are being asked to redeem their Origin and EA products before March 18. Humble will automatically redeem the keys if a person's Humble and Origin accounts are linked.
As an advisory, Humble has requested all players to manually redeem their keys before the given deadline. This is being asked to prevent a situation where gamers may involuntarily end up losing product keys.
Humble hasn't informed the possible reason behind this announcement. However, it is highly possible that this could be an internal decision related to a possible policy change.
The chances of Origin closing down have increased, possibly due to what EA had said earlier. The current EA Play is easily higher in the pecking order, with the service being integrated into Steam and Xbox Game Pass. It's quite clear that the company sees EA Play as its future for making games available to gamers.
EA hasn't informed anything as of now from their end. This is unlike what Bethesda did in February, as they had informed about closing the Bethesda.Net launcher. Therefore, there's a chance that Origin may continue as it is, at least for now. However, with EA giving more importance to EA Play and integrating it with more services, Origin is on the backburner.
Only time will tell if and when Origin shuts down. For the time being, the first priority for all gamers should be to redeem their keys on humble as quickly as possible. In case they forget to do so, they will lose access to all the Origin keys they own on Humble.
