Apex Legends on Steam Won’t Require Origin, Respawn Developer Confirms

Earlier this week, Electronic Arts announced their partnership with Valve. After an eight year break, EA games will soon be available to play on Steam. In addition to both single player and multiplayer games coming to Steam, the Origin Access subscription service will also launch on Valve’s platform. The announcement sparked discussions about whether or not Origin will be required to play games via Steam. Responding to the comments, a Respawn Entertainment developer stated that the Steam version of Apex Legends will not require Origin to run.

As confirmed by Respawn developer TheZilch, Apex Legends will launch “directly” with Steam without running Origin. You’ll probably still need to have an EA account to log into the game. Furthermore, the friends lists of both Steam and Origin will soon be integrated. Speaking with Engadget, EA’s Mike Blank said:

“We are working with Valve and Steam to connect our friends lists together more effectively, so that you can play together across multiplayer games, regardless of which platform you’re choosing to play the game on”

While this is true for Apex Legends, other EA games on Steam, such as the new Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, will require you to have the Origin launcher installed. This will work similar to Ubisoft titles on Steam, where launching a game on Steam automatically opens the Uplay launcher.

Although this is the case for now, the situation may change in the future. The new Star Wars on Steam requires Origin, but according to an EA developer, they are investigating “longer-term solutions that’ll make it as easy as possible for players to enjoy our games on Steam.”

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the first EA game to launch on Steam, and will arrive on the platform on November 15th later this year. Other titles, including Apex Legends, Battlefield V, and FIFA 20, will come to Valve’s own platform sometime next year.