EA gives Jade Empire away On The House

Electronic Arts is continuing its On The House promotion, designed to encourage people to install and use its Origin digital distribution platform, with the release of classic BioWare role-playing game Jade Empire for free.

While On The House initially launched in 2014 with the relatively up-to-date horror shooter Dead Space, Electronic Arts has since shifted its focus to concentrate on titles from further back in its history. For a company that has been publishing games for as long as EA, though, that's no bad thing: the promotion, designed to boost interest in digital distribution platform Origin, has seen the free releases of classics including Theme Hospital, Syndicate, SimCity 2000, and Wing Commander III.

Now, the company is turning to BioWare's output, offering the excellent martial arts role-playing title Jade Empire: Special Edition to users completely free of charge. Originally released for the Xbox in 2005 before getting a Windows port as the Special Edition, the Chinese-themed but carefully geographically-fictitious Jade Empire is one of BioWare's most-loved titles. Gathering rave reviews, the game's open-ended nature and impressive - for the time - graphics were universally praised, with one of the few criticisms being its short nature. Sadly, despite this success, no further titles in the series were developed.

Jade Empire: Special Edition is available for download now from EA's Origin service. While the giveaway offer is, as always, time-limited, once redeemed the title will remain downloadable for the life of the user's Origin account.