EA has announced that its Origin digital download platform is expanding to offer PC games from 11 new publishing partners.
Starting today, Trion's MMORPG Rift has been added to Origin for purchase and download, with more titles from EA's new partners set to be made available over the coming months.
Origin vice president of business development Craig Rechenmacher said: "Origin is focused on providing choice to consumers and the games they play.
"From blockbuster franchises to high-quality independent titles, we're bringing the industry's best content to one place. We're excited to welcome new partners and a diverse new line-up of titles to Origin today."
Warner, THQ and Capcom started offering titles through Origin late last year.
Comments
8 comments so far...
kmcroc on 24 Jan '12 said:
Guess thier after tubbys money or fanbase . any how good luck Origin.
nathar on 24 Jan '12 said:
Well it certainly sounds like theyre offering some competition to steam, but having just been to their site, theyre keeping games from other publishers well hidden! Can someone point me towards the 'high quality independent titles' they have now? Most of the stuff i seem to click on navigates me away from their site..
photoboy on 24 Jan '12 said:
"Origin is focused on providing choice to consumers and the games they play."
Except when they want to buy and play their games through Steam.
"From blockbuster franchises to high-quality independent titles, we're bringing the industry's best content to one place."
It's already in one place on Steam. Why fragment the market?
I remember my extreme scepticism of Steam when it first came out, particularly over what would happen to all my games if Valve went bust. Now that Steam is well established and profitable I worry much less about my games vanishing into the digital ether and for the most part, DRM isn't a problem on Steam either, except in cases where certain publishers insist on infecting their software with additional crap i.e. Ubisoft.
Steam has also proven to be the least intrusive and best run digital download service on the PC IMHO. I don't want another load of DLLs cluttering up my hard drive for Origin's download client, just like I resent having to install updates for Games for Windows Live because some PC games require it.
That said, my biggest problem is that EA are mercurial bastards who will dump Origin in a heartbeat if they think it's not making money. I'm not sure where this leaves me when it comes to Mass Effect 3, because as much as I'd like to boycott Origin, I'm not sure I can resist ME3...
nathar on 24 Jan '12 said:
I would personally never advocate buying a retail copy from a shop and using one of the no-origin patches that I doubt will be easily available on the internet. So yeah, if you want to boycott Origin but still play ME3 don't do that thing i said.
KesMonkey on 24 Jan '12 said:
Indeed. I demand to be able to buy a Big Mac from Burger King.
Yes, Burger King should never have started up, because we already had McDonald's.
I have chosen to use only one example. I really don't need to type out the dozens of others I have in mind, do I?
Drusus on 24 Jan '12 said:
You don't understand what you're talking about so I'll help you using the fast food style you seem to be knowledgeable of.
This is like Big Macs that are super appealing for their first three months and all the Big Macs brought out are available at most retailers but then some of the appealing Big Macs limit themselves to one retailer and when you walk through the door, that retailer punches you in the gut and demands the rights to everything you do slowing your progress on your journey.
Do you understand? Yes they have freedom to set up competing services but their service is awful so it's not really competing more denying you the Big Mac you want unless you want chronic stomach pains.
Hope that helped.
pRM8 on 25 Jan '12 said:
I also like having options of where to buy my food. Its simple really, if you don't like who is supplying your fast food then go elsewhere as that's the beauty of competition and choice.
The way some people talk is as though Steam is the only place to purchase, download and play games from. There was variety in the market well before even Origin came along and remember, EA are not the only ones to have games exclusive to their own service, Valve did this when they introduced Steam and still do it to this day.
Anyway stop this talk, your making me hungry!
Obscure_Metaphor on 25 Jan '12 said:
competition should keep digital prices down.
saying that, i just bought Crysis 2 from amazon for £8 and stuck the key into origin, saving myself £6... so the system isnt exactly working yet.
Steam will always be the prefered method, especially since it is run by a dev, and not a publisher.