EA has made almost all available DLC for the Mass Effect Trilogy and the first two Dragon Age games free via its Origin launcher.
In an email sent to players, EA revealed that DLC for Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 (except for any multiplayer content), will all be made available for free going forward on the Origin launcher. This content is available for free immediately in advance of EA shutting down the BioWare Points currency on October 11, 2022. Any BioWare Points players still have can be used before October 11 to purchase any Mass Effect 3 multiplayer packs, after which all packs will only be purchasable using in-game credits. Any content already purchased with BioWare Points will remain available to players as well.
BioWare Points were much like Microsoft Points primarily used on the Xbox 360 marketplace, forcing players to convert real money into points available only at specified increments to purchase digital content in Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. Oftentimes, these conversions intentionally forced players to purchase more points than necessary, leaving awkward balances leftover on EA’s proprietary storefront.
EA launched the Origin storefront in an attempt to compete with the major PC marketplace, Steam, though it was never able to draw players away from their established libraries on that service. EA continued supporting Steam players by launching its games on the platform, though an Origin account still was required. That’s why BioWare points weren’t really used in the studio’s modern PC games and are now being shuttered altogether.
It is a pleasant surprise to see EA make this content free during this change, especially right after Ubisoft announced that it was not only removing online support for many of its games and making any DLC for those games unplayable. With game preservation becoming more important, this is clearly the right course of action to take.
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