EA adding third party games to Origin

Fri 28 Oct 2011 7:56am GMT / 3:56am EDT / 12:56am PDT
Online

THQ, Capcom and Warner offering PC titles from November

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Electronic Arts has revealed the first third-party publishers which will feature games on its Origin download service, naming THQ, Warner Bros. and Capcom for the service.

As of November, the service will feature Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third and further, undisclosed titles. Third-party games will continue to be added to the service.

"Since launch, we've had overwhelming support from both publishers and developers across the gaming industry, recognizing Origin as an opportunity to deliver more of their great content straight to consumers across the globe," said senior VP of Origin, David DeMartini.

"We're excited to welcome Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, THQ and Capcom as the first publishers to offer their games via Origin."

EA had already announced that it would be releasing some of its own games exclusively on the service, as well as extra exclusive content. David DeMartini first publicly floated the idea of third-party support in July.

At the EB Games Expo in Australia recently, EA boss Peter Moore responded to a heckler by revealing that over 5 million players were already using Origin.

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17 Comments

Stephen McCarthy
Studying Games Technology

Kingston University

I think your missing some text here.
I can not see any thing.

Posted:A year ago

Dan Pearson
European Deputy Editor

GamesIndustry International

Thanks, Stephen - all fixed.

Posted:A year ago

Farhang Namdar
Lead Game Designer

EA disgusts me, I would like to play Battlefield 3 and I even bought a new PC for it but this Origin nonsense is a real deal breaker. Honestly it took me eight years to accept steam into my life and that was when I was younger and then these money groping sleaze bags force this down peoples throats.

Posted:A year ago

Colin McBride
Studying MA in 3D Design for Virtual Worlds

Glasgow Caledonian University

I suppose it's fair enough that EA want to grab some of the Steam action but I really resent the strong-arm tactics that they seem to be using to force people to use the service. I'm really looking forward to Mass Effect 3 but I really hope that they won't try and force me onto Origin in order to play it...

Posted:A year ago

Chris Wood
Lead Game Designer

Waracle

@Colin - you'll be disappointed - Every EA game will be linked to Origin from now on ...

I want the pleasure of playing BF3, ME3, SWTOR and other games EA are going to bring out. Am I happy about Origin - No, but its not going to go away ...

As an aside - had real problems authenticating my game this morning ......

Posted:A year ago

Harrison Smith
Studying Games and Graphics Programming

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

If there was ever going to be a 3rd party joining origin Warner Bro's would be the first, they are like on every single DD platform going around at the moment for there types of games.

Posted:A year ago

Morville O'Driscoll
Games Blogger & Journalist

@ Chris - There's a difference between a game linking to Origin, and EA forcing Origin on customers. I can link the copy of Dragon Age: Origins that I got on Steam to my Origin account, for example, but that doesn't mean I have to. Hopefully Mass Effect 3 will follow the DA:O route, rather than the BF3 route (not appearing on Steam at all).

Posted:A year ago

James Ingrams
Writer

If EA can bring competition to the sigital marketplace, all well and good. The arrogance iof Valve/Steam, for example, to force all downloads to go in the same folder on the same partition, causing all sorts of grief when hard disk space gets low on that partition needs to be addressed. Nobody listens to gamers, so it will take competition for Steam to start offering decent customer service.

Posted:A year ago

Andrew Clayton
QA Weapons Tester

Electronic Arts

@James: But Origin isn't offering any real improvements in service. If Origin was offering some sort of improvements I wouldn't be as against it as I am. I remember how much of a disaster Steam was when first came out. Eventually they fixed that because the community hated it so much. But I didn't have to use Steam to play Half-Life 2, I had 5 CDs for that very reason.

Eventually Origin will be a great thing. Strong competition always helps the consumers. But until the time comes when Origin starts offering the prices and extras that Steam offers, I'm going to stay away.

Posted:A year ago

Chris Wood
Lead Game Designer

Waracle

@Morville: Is it not only games released pre Origin that you can link to it ? I would expect them to go down the same route as BF3 for the rest of their games. I guess they could compromise and release games at a later date on steam but if they are committed to pushing their own download service then in their eyes why would they ?

Posted:A year ago

#10

Terence Gage
Freelance writer

@ Farhang - "Honestly it took me eight years to accept steam into my life and that was when I was younger"

Uh, didn't Steam only launch in 2003? So the service was only eight years old this year.

Posted:A year ago

#11

Kalle Singh
Lead Programmer

Just look at last night, Origin/EA a big let down. BF3 launch and it took ages for the problems to be sorted. Not a good start! :(

Posted:A year ago

#12

Morville O'Driscoll
Games Blogger & Journalist

@ Chris - Well, it comes down to money. There's a reason why The Sims games are being released on Steam at the same time as every other retail store (still) - because there's a whole lot of money to be had from Steam. BF3 and TOR are absolutely great for getting the hardcore gamer into Origin, because the hardcore gamer isn't going to ignore them (not totally, anyway). But when it comes to more mainstream games, like The Sims, and possibly the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises... Well, it's a toss-up between whether EA wants to risk losing money from Steam simply to have them as products to push Origin.

Given EA's losses, I'm curious what percentage of profits they gained from forcing BF3 onto Origin, vs what they have lost from not having it on Steam. Any way to find out? Are financials opened to that great a degree to non-shareholders?

Posted:A year ago

#13

Eduardo Bautista
Owner and Executive Editor

Entra Gamers

Remember when Steam was first released?

Posted:A year ago

#14

Morville O'Driscoll
Games Blogger & Journalist

Yes, it was 2003, and the world cared less about video games. Also, Valve wasn't the size of EA. Also, a product like Steam hadn't already existed for 8 years.

Seriously, there's no similarities between the 2, save for they're both digitial distro systems.

Posted:A year ago

#15

Daniel Vardy
Studying HND IT

De Montfort University

I wont be touching any game which makes Origin a requirement, for me I see Origin as Spyware for EA to flood me with 3rd party adverts. Origin won't really be bringing much competition to the market, since it looks like all forthcoming EA titles will be linked to it somehow and I would assume EA will be taking a similar (bigger) share from 3rd party devs as Steam does now.

Posted:A year ago

#16

Klaus Preisinger
Freelance Writing

In Germany, Origin already made mainstream news as a piece of software breaking German data privacy laws. The German gaming mag Gamestar even went into greater detail and has a four page article (brought to you by BF3, ironically) in which a lawyer rips EA a new one, listing where privacy acts are infringed upon and how ridiculous it is to try and revoke a right granted by the state to its citizens with the help of an Eula.

Ultimately the problem is that although EA breaks quite a few laws, there is still no way to hold them accountable. They have the questionable system in place, but there are no means to exercise control or oversight on what they do. Since the costs of going to trial also far outweigh the cost of an individual game, the incentive is there for EA to just keep bullying people around.

This Origin ordeal is more proof of the fact of the Internet still being in its wild west phase. The deals being cut between consumer and producer of a good are still very one-sided. Compare it to other forms of trade and you will find, there is always a third party, by that I mean mostly state laws, involved brokering the rules for both sides of the deal.

If you buy a car or clothes, you are probably aware of what you can and cannot do, it is a convenient shopping experience. Read the Eula of a game and this convenient shopping experience goes away. Suddenly you do not feel like shopping in a mall, but like walking up to the house of hillbilly farmer to trade scrap metal for potatoes, passing multiple signs reading "trespassers and solicitors will be shot".

Posted:A year ago

#17