Electronic Arts has had a brilliant system for trying out its games for several years in the form of EA Access, a cheapish subscription that is finally coming to Steam. Until it arrives, EA’s expansion and return to Steam will kick off with a baker’s dozen of games that includes Dragon Age Inquisition and serene indie darling Sea of Solitude, as the publisher is finally ready to sell games on the biggest digital distribution platform once again.

If you were hoping to get a bit of hands-on time thanks to EA or Origin Access though, you’re in for a bad time. See, one of the best things about an EA Access subscription is that it gets you a 10 hours trial of a game, with your saves carrying over if you choose to buy the game, or if it ever gets added to the vault.

Here’s the thing about EA: Even if they have one high profile fail, the live service gains that they’ve made in the last financial year are still bringing in levels of cash that can only be described as obscenely stupid.

An interview with the president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, revealed that the publisher is thinking about a potential subscription model for their catalogue.

It’s very nearly E3 time, and you know what that means! Conjecture, supposition and plain old wishful thinking in the form of rumours and leaks! We’ve already gotten our first major Ubisoft leak thanks to the untimely reveal of Ubisoft’s rollerblading game, Roller Champions. Now comes another, in the form of something called the “Ubisoft Pass Premium.”

When EA launched its EA Access subscription service five years ago, it was exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox. The service later launched on PC through EA’s own Origin. EA and Sony have now announced that the subscription service will finally be coming to PlayStation this July.

For better or for worse, exciting times lie ahead of us. It’s a brave new world out there for video games and for many of us, we didn’t even see it sneak up on us.

Gaming subscription services have really started taking off – and there’s a good reason for that. Games – which are a luxury item – cost a heck of a lot of money, so capped subscription services make a lot of sense. It’s more economically feasible for many to pay a single monthly fee that offers a smorgasbord of games than it is to buy new games all the time. And with services like Microsoft’s Game Pass and EA’s Access ones, those subscriptions even net you the newest games from those publishers.