Origin client adding Twitch livestreaming

Origin has done little to distinguish itself from other digital distributors, beyond hosting fewer sales and being required for newer EA games, but it's finally getting a feature the competition hasn't had for yonks. A coming patch will bring built-in livestreaming through Twitch, along with the option to add non-Origin games to your library and an assortment of tweaks.

Originauts will be able to start streaming their games to a Twitch account simply by popping up the overlay UI, EA explains in a blog post. As the update will let you play any game through Origin, you'll be able to stream whatever you jolly well please with a few clicks. Not that using Twitch is usually difficult, of course, but it shows that EA is taking steps to make Origin your go-to program for video games.

Steam has supported launching non-Steam games for several years.

Livestreaming is the big new social feature, it seems. PlanetSide 2 is also tapping Twitch for livestreams, and Activision announced this morning that Call of Duty: Black Ops II will support YouTube livestreaming. After years of weird, empty social integration like automated Twitter posts, it's nice to see an actually useful social feature.

The patch also brings a spread of performance boosts and a few other tweaks. It's slated to start rolling out "in the coming days," starting with people who opt into beta builds.