EA’s Origin Gets FPS Counter, Cross-Game Invites

EA’s digital distribution service copped a lot of flack when it first launched, but it’s quietly gotten a lot of decent updates over the last couple of years. And while EA isn’t about to overtake Valve anytime soon, Origin is still getting some handy updates: like an in-built FPS counter and cross-game invites.

EA announced the updates were coming via a post on their support site. The updates aren’t available in the public branch of the Origin client, but you can access them by enabling beta updates through the Application Settings menu.

The first update is a handy FPS counter, mirroring a feature that has been in Steam for a while now. Here’s what the counter looks like, via Battlefield 1:

Not too obtrusive. There’s no advanced metrics or benchmarking tools sadly, as amazing as that would be. But it’s better than nothing and it’s helpful for first-time PC users unfamiliar with third-party monitoring tools if they’re trying to optimise their setup.

Another feature added to Origin’s beta branch is a little less flashy, but helpful: the ability to invite players playing one game to join a party in another game. Accepting the invite will close your existing game after a few seconds, automatically jumping you into the game your friends are playing.

The blog post notes the feature isn’t infallible though: Titanfall 2 has a launcher separate to Origin which interferes with the process, and any other game built similarly could also run into issues.

Still, they’re handy additions to have. Overdue, but useful nonetheless. Origin’s also getting the ability to cap download speeds. If that’s something you can make use of, or you want to know more about the rest of the features above, head here to find out more.