Origin 9.0 is nearly here! In the coming days, we’ll be rolling out a landmark update to millions of Origin users worldwide, beginning with players who have opted in to beta updates and going live for everyone else soon thereafter.

Your suggestions and feedback over the past few months have driven many of the changes you’ll see in Origin 9.0. We’ve added a clock to Origin In-Game, increased your control over your My Games library, and made our menus more navigable. And today, we’re very excited to share a first look at what's coming.

Let’s start with the Origin friends list.

Unlike in previous versions of Origin, where your friends list was fused to the main client window, the list in 9.0 is free-floating and mobile, making it easier to chat both in-game and out:

If you’re not feeling social, just close the list. You can pop it up again at any time by selecting Show Friends List from the Friends menu, or by clicking on the icon, which also shows how many of your friends are online:

You may also have noticed that we’ve replaced our old navigation with a new, more intuitive pulldown menu system. Options and settings can now be accessed through the Origin menu, and the Help menu has been expanded to include direct links to live chat, our forums, and your order history.

Another big change in 9.0 is our revamp of the My Games library. First off, we’ve added a slider to let you resize game images, so you can make them as small…

Or as large…

As you like.

Secondly, we’ve moved buttons like Download and Install to a new hover card. From here, you can click the info button to bring up the game’s detail page, which includes all cloud storage and add-on information for that game:

Many of you will also be happy to hear that we've heeded your requests and moved forward production of our in-game clock. Bring up Origin In-Game in 9.0 and you’ll see it featured prominently in the upper right-hand corner:

And last (but in many ways first), we’ve improved the overall performance of the client, making 9.0 an even smoother experience for Origin gamers.

As we promised previously, we'll also be hosting a second online Origin chat, where we'll show off Origin 9.0 and answers your questions about the client, our changes, and more. Check back on our blog in the next week or two for an announcement of the chat date and time.

Thank you again for all of your feedback and input over the past few months. We’ve worked hard to make 9.0 what it is, and we hope you enjoy using it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.

Ready for 9.0?

Opt in to beta updates and get 9.0 early. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Origin client and log in to your account.

2. Click the gear icon and select Settings from the drop-down menu.

3. Scroll down to Origin Pre-Release Participation and check the box next to “Update to the pre-release version if available.”

4. Click Close to save your settings.