EA: Origin Already at Four Million Users, Third-Party Games Coming “Very Soon”
EA: Origin Already at Four Million Users, Third-Party Games Coming “Very Soon”
Posted 09/13/2011 at 12:41am
| by Nathan Grayson
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In launching its own PC game download service, EA may have taken a headfirst dive into an extremely crowded pool, but it certainly hasn't bellyflopped. So then, you may not like it – especially given that it's aiming to be your sole supplier of EA's heaviest hitters – but EA CFO Eric Brown says that Origin isn't going anywhere any time soon.
"We're fairly excited about Origin," Brown said during a UBS conference in London (as reported by Gamasutra). "We have about 4 million installs of the client, we expect that number to climb substantially as we enter this holiday season."
"Initially, Origin is set up to deliver EA games, but very soon, we'll be delivering third-party content to Origin," he added.
So then, have any of you taken Origin for a spin? Do you think it deserves its big-bad-wolf-who's-devoured-the-boy-who-cried-wolf-and-the-creators-of-Wolfenstein reputation? Or is this just another instance of all being fair in love and capitalism?
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luusyphre
September 13, 2011 at 4:50pm
Everyone needs to stop their crying. Competition will only make for better services. I know it sucks to have multiple gaming portals, but eventually (hopefully) the industry will mature enough where flipping through all these services will be like flipping through channels on a TV. They all can't be as good as Steam, but they'll get better (or fade away, get bought out, etc). I remember just a few years ago everyone complaining about how badly Steam sucked.
Nimrod
September 13, 2011 at 12:58pm
Origin is a COMPLETE fraud and borderline criminal. The only reason they have ANY members is because they literally FORCE you to use it to play their games now. Your Origin name is unique and its used as your in game name for titles like BF3 and YOU CANT CHANGE YOUR NAME IN GAME.
EA was already most hated name in all of gaming. Now they have even more haters who didnt even know how bad it was until EA forced this on its BF3 customers.
Other than BF3 I am on a TOTAL boycott of all EA games. I ecurage others to do the same. After all, if EA wernt publishing BF, im sure some one else would. Its not like we have anything to thank them for.
luusyphre
September 13, 2011 at 5:01pm
Why is Origin a fraud? Does that make Steam a fraud because they too FORCED people into getting Steam to play any Valve game since Half Life 2? Does that make Microsoft a fraud because they FORCED people into getting GFW Live? Yes, I don't like that you can't change your name in game, but it's not too big of a deal for me (since it would be the same). I do believe EA is a terrible evil corporation, but Origin is just another gaming client and I have a feeling that there's going to be more in the future (I'm willing to bet UBISoft will come out with in the near future).
Caboose
September 14, 2011 at 8:14am
People will hear a word, think it means something that it doesn't, and start using it everywhere. Nothing you can do about it.
ATCmanDan
September 13, 2011 at 12:47pm
The ONLY reason I installed Origin is for BF3, because it won't be available on Steam. I will not be buying ANY other games from Origin because the User Agreement says that they don't have to support any games that I buy after 3 years. That is ABSOLUTELY unacceptable. Read the fine print people...
I wouldn't install it at all if I could buy BF3 somewhere else.
zepontiff
September 16, 2011 at 10:09am
I'm inspired by your ability to stick to your principles.
I was unaware of the 3yr thing. I won't be using this service period.
Caboose
September 13, 2011 at 8:43am
I've xferd my copy of Sims3 and RA3 to Origin. The expansions that I have for Battlefield 2, and 2142 automatically xferd to Origin. I've also purchased Crysis 2 on Origin (I didn't get it through Steam in time). I've not had any issues. I can even launch my games w/o Origin running in the background, which I think is effin' awesome!
I've even found the download location for Origin Games, so I can easily back them up, like I do with my Steam games list, which is nice. I haven't experienced any of the issues that others are having, with Origin. Sure I can't xfer all my retail EA games to it, but whatever. I've got all the discs ripped to ISO's and set up on my PC so I don't need the install media anymore.
Honestly, I think its an alright service.
Nimrod
September 13, 2011 at 1:00pm
Is this sarcasm or just an incredibly pathetic atempt at fooling your self into not feeling like the complete TOOL that you come off as?
Red Ensign
September 13, 2011 at 4:10pm
Dimrod, if anyone is coming off like a tool it's you. Sorry you don't like EA and Origin but you're utterly powerless to do anything about it other than cry on a small time internet comment board. There's quite a few intelligent, civilized, non-emo adults here who have few issues with Origin or how EA does their business. Some irrelevant web jockey tossing out simpleton insults isn't going to change that either. Deal with it, you have no choice. Enjoy.
PCLinuxguy
September 13, 2011 at 7:02am
better late than never, but they need to iron out more of the rough edges before making it more widely available, unless it's for beta testing that is.
Joji
September 13, 2011 at 5:33am
STEAM - Works at school (can DL games)
Origin - Doesn't work at school (can not DL games)
That's the problem... Origin doesn't work at school. I can't leave it on and say hi to my friends. D:
deadsolid
September 13, 2011 at 5:33am
How about supporting some of their old games? Retail copies of BF2 can not be registered on Origin, but you can definitely repurchase the game through the app. It's not a bad service it's just incomplete.
Caboose
September 13, 2011 at 8:37am
They state that games older than I think its 2009 can't be xferd to Origin. I like though, that if you've purchased any retail games after that date, you can activate them on Origin easily. I've moved my Sim3 and Red Alert 3 over to Origin.
h e x e n
September 13, 2011 at 4:21am
Origin as an idea isn't bad. Some good ol fashion competition in the market place never hurt anyone. But Origin as it is is a total mess, and I went into it with an open mind. I preordered BF3 because they offered me a free game for doing so, it was part of being an alpha tester I believe. So I was like "great", and went ahead and ordered it with Dead Space 2 as my free game of choice.
So, I paid the $60, got both games in my Origin library (the only two in there) and downloaded Dead Space 2, ready to play.
Oh, except they never sent me a serial key to the game. Not in my email, not in my Origin account, they sent me nothing. Not even a "Thank you for your purchase." The customer service person I talked to said it could take up to 48 hours for the key to be sent. There goes the weekend, but fine. 5 days later I was pissed enough to call and cancel my order and get my money back, which took over an hour thanks largely to Origin generating 6 different ticket numbers for the same transaction.
Bottom line, I had a pretty piss poor experience with Origin which totally turned me off to the service. They need to do WAAAAAAY better if they expect to compete with other DD services.
Caboose
September 13, 2011 at 8:35am
Check the game info screen. It should be there. I know thats where my Crysis 2 key is.
wolf17
September 13, 2011 at 3:37am
Origin isn't necessarily /bad/; however, it's not that great either. I used it to buy some old SimCity and SimSocieties games when they were on sale for about 5 bucks but other than that I don't see myself ever using it for anything else. If BF3 and other games don't get on Steam then I am simply not buying them until they are used or in the bargain bin on DVD :P.
BloodDonor
September 13, 2011 at 2:46am
Anyone notice theyre talking about third party games, after diss'ing STEAM a few weeks back... i wonder if this was the true reason why
Marthian
September 13, 2011 at 5:38am
yeah I think that's probably why. Pretty sure they wanted to make Steam look bad so this "service" would make them more money. However, most people that have Origin are only installing it for Battlefield 3, and the whole competition argument isn't really making a lot of sense to me because Steam already has competition such as Direct2Drive, Gamestop, Gamer's Gate, and Amazon.
luusyphre
September 13, 2011 at 4:54pm
How does "the whole competition argument" not make sense? Competition is competition and another service is just more competition. Just because a market is saturated (and I don't think it is) doesn't mean someone else can't try their luck.
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