EA adds CD Projekt RED, Paradox, and nine other publishers to Origin

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 24th 2012 9:00PM

When Valve introduced the hat system to Team Fortress 2, you swore off Steam forever. You're a die hard PC Battlefield player, and simply won't play it anywhere else. You refuse to use standalone clients for launching your favorite PC games. Do these things describe you? Then you're probably a big fan of EA's Origin game service, which will be getting content from 11 publishers "in the coming months," according to a press release issued by EA this morning.

The first game to be added is the aforementioned Rift from Trion Worlds, with games from Robot Entertainment, CD Projekt RED, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, Inxile Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core Learning, and N3V Games joining Rift's ranks soon. EA says that more specific information on pricing and release dates will be offered in the near future via Origin, so keep an eye out while you're remaining steadfast in your stance against that other major digital retailer.

Source: BusinessWire

Tags: 1c-company, autumn-games, cd-projekt-red, core-learning, ea, ea-origin, electronic-arts, freebird-games, inxile-entertainment, n3v-games, origin, paradox-interactive, pc, recoil-games

Reader Comments (44)

But....
who doesn't like hats?

Oh God...

Why?!

well, in celebration i'll go buy from dust on Steam. in celebration.

aka steampowered.com

F#@^& EA

@SmilinGoat

Your comment is odd.

Why would you, as a PC gamer, want to purchase a UBISOFT game?!

@lolkeits
Yeah, EA is far less evil when compared to the likes of Ubishit on PC. At least EA is trying to do things on PC (despite taking away madden...)

The only thing wrong with Origin is its obtuse EULA and ToS. Otherwise, it's only going to get better as a client. But until the platform becomes more consumer friendly, I'll pass on it in the meantime.

@Mmmmz Really the only thing wrong with Origin is that, do you even realize what that name represents in PC gaming?

To take it and drag it through the mud even further infuriates me, go look up Richard Garriot, Ultima, and Origin. And you'll see why some of us older gamers will NEVER use that particular service to buy games.

@lolkeits

I tell you that's one hell of an oxymoron. Buying a UBISOFT game in retaliation of a questionable company and their online game service.

More money for other developers. I can dig that. I still ain't using Origin

@Ramen of Doom

yeah if this was a group of indie developers, i'd jump right in. but EA. no. just no. i have to say i dont have enough self control not to buy their games (i love bioware games, including TOR) but will i buy my games through EA when i have the choice to go elsewhere? hell no. EA can give as much extra content as they want, but hell if i ever give them money directly.

@SmilinGoat

but you will happily give them money indirectly?

@Fakeassname

And how???? they are taking all their latest titles away from steam, so the "indirectly" way is starting to slowly fade .........

I'm sorry, but I lost it on the first paragraph.

"while you're remaining steadfast in your stance against that other major digital retailer."

No.

The only thing origin is good for was the game Bioforge.. you beat a man to death with his own arm in the first moments of the game.. Other than that nope no nope nope nope.

it's funny how many people bitch about Origin, yet no one can ever quote a cripplingly bad experience or serious complaint about the service it's self.

yeah it's from EA, I can't say I like them and their policies all that much myself, but the Origin service itself is stable and as a DRM platform it's highly preferable to the likes of TAGES and SecuROM (not saying much since burning yourself with a lighter is also better than dealing with those, but it's still not too bad to deal with .... for a DRM system) and without the mandatory client of Steam or Impulse I can play my games when I want to, not when a third party program finishes updating itself.

@Fakeassname

Actually I've seen many people write about Origin copying user files and so fourth. If that's true, that's a legitimate complaint

@Fakeassname
What about being banned from EA's forums for uncertain reasons, and then losing all the games you payed top dollar for? I don't go anywhere near EA's forums, but knowing that they're taking away peoples games for no reason is enough for me to never trust my money with their service.

Doesn't matter if the DRM is prefferable, doesn't mattter if it doesn't force a client on you. They can and will take away the games you payed for, for silly, petty reasons.

I don't understand why anyone would defend that.

@Fakeassname
"it's funny how many people bitch about Origin, yet no one can ever quote a cripplingly bad experience or serious complaint about the service it's self."

How about them yanking your games from your library if you haven't booted them in two years? Yeah. Real talk. You might not find it that big of a deal, but with a physical + Steam library as huge as mine, that is a Big Ass Problem. There are other things about the service I certainly don't admire, but that reason alone is why I won't have a thing to do with it. If you like it, good for you I guess.

@darkinchworm

Well, one, what you said isn't even accurate. They had a clause that said they may delete inactive accounts after two years. Two, Origin hasn't even been out two years so that hasn't been done to anyone. Three, they answered questions about that clause and stated this:

"The Origin terms of service are designed to protect against misuse of the Origin system. No Origin user who has paid entitlements and/or downloaded games will have their account cancelled or games expired due to extended non-use. The term regarding account cancellation for non-use is designed to guard against creation of non-active accounts for inappropriate reasons.”

Four, that clause doesn't appear to be in the ToS anymore. They probably realized that some people would never trust the clause the way it was written.

@Fakeassname
I agree that the Origin hate is quite overdone, though I'd have more respect for them if they'd sell their games on Origin AND other digital retailers.

My cripplingly bad experience with Origin?
How about you can't select the language in the shop? Not that big of a deal until EA mistakes french for your foreign language. Seeing how everything is localized in europe and my french isn't good enough to see what version of a game I'd be getting, I'd rather not risk it and be stuck with "Champ de Bataille Trois".

@Vidikron
Actually, what I said was accurate (key word, was):
"If you have not used your Entitlements or Account for twenty four (24) months or more and your Account has associated Entitlements, your Entitlements will expire and your Account may be cancelled for non-use."

But it does appear as though this has been edited out of their terms of service (so again, "was"). How I did not hear about this, I am unsure. That they would have contemplated that at all leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but more power to them for eradicating my primary issue with the service.

I still have zero inclination to use Origin and am not a big enough fan of any of EA's franchises currently requiring a service to justify it. Should I be tempted, I'll review the EULA in full.

I don't mind Origin.

I was originally protesting Origin around BF3's release date. I didn't even pre-order BF3 until the Sunday before its release date, even then, I went to GameStop and pre-ordered.

Now, I have Crysis 2 and BC2 on my account as well. I honestly don't mind it. It has minimal footprint on my PC and works pretty darn smooth.

Other than the TOS issues, its pretty decent, though I still prefer Steam and my 30+ library of games I have on there.

In the end, both platforms are happily co-existing on my PC :)

@BoBsS

Origin is fine, I really don't get what the complaining is about.

I have a Steam library of 222 games currently and I welcome Origin. I rather have a service attached DRM than pointless TAGES, Sony SecuROM, or Activation limits.

The memory footprint for Origin is actually less than Steam. And the data collection Origin does is actually pretty similar to the data collection Steam does.

They also have some nice Origin sales and you can get Customer Support pretty much instantly while on Steam I have to wait 3 days to get a reply.

"But we're not competing with Steam!" :>

Origin is cancer.

"You're a die hard PC Battlefield player, and simply won't play it anywhere else."

You say this as if you have a choice. It's through origin or it doesn't happen at all. Unless you've cracked it or pirated it, which would limit your game experience to singe-player, the part of the game no one has any interest in.

"You refuse to use standalone clients for launching your favorite PC games."

Then why would you use Origin, or Steam for that matter? you'd just launch directly from the executable... Which isn't an option for some EA/Steam games, (it will launch the service regardless, so the 'client' will launch your game,) BF3 being among them, and I'm sure ME3 will as well.

@Draugdraugr
Hmm, facepalm or shake of head? Both?

Nah, I'll just give you a tip. Your sarcasm meter is broken and due to you letting such sarcasm waves out in the open for others to get hit by, ours have been broken as a result as well.

Expect a bill in 2-3 days. Failure to comply promptly will result in the termination of your internets.

@Mmmmz

Hah, Oooh man. Embarassing.
Perhaps posting on the internet while inebriated wasn't the smartest move! :P

@Draugdraugr

That's the whole point of using origin instead of steam in that statement. If you've installed a game through steam you have to have the steam client running to launch the game for you.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is To my knowledge, you have to have Origin running to launch BF3 - is that not accurate?

I have no problem with companies using origin as another form of digital service as long as their is another version being sold on steam. However, if there is ONLY a copy on origin and not steam, I will NEVER buy it. I have not bought battlefield 3, nor it looks like I will not buy mass effect 3, though I don't think that will be a great loss since ME2 was meh anyway and dragon age 2 should win the worst RPG in the last 20 years award. EA has killed so many good companies and bioware is dead and just a rotting corpse of itself, so no, I will not be playing anything on origin thank you.

@Ender7
That argument will be invalid until Valve releases Half-Life and Team Fortress on Origin.

I was more annoyed with Mass Effect 3, but then I have to remember that EA owns bioware now so they're nothing.

Valves really should release their games on Origin, or make it public that they tried, hard. Then it'd make EA show their hand. We'd either have a bitter, delicious war or a fuzzy, warm hug for Digital Distribution until someone sneezes.

@Ender7

You'll notice that Kingdoms of Alamur is on Steam, but ME3 isn't.

Seems to me that they only push Origin on their established franchises, they know they don't have that option with new ones. I could be wrong, but it's my suspicion.

Hopefully OpenOrigin ends up being awesome, and not squelched by EA before it gets a chance. We'll see...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openorigin/

@Ender7 exactly, I don't like being told where I can buy things from. I want the internet to be exactly like brick and mortar in the fact that things are allowed to be sold wherever people go to buy them.

Origin which only reminds me how badly EA screwed that particular development house, just makes me so mad when they pull this exclusivity shit.

Idiots.

@Draugdraugr

Kingdoms of Amular is on Steam because EA does not own 38 Studios/BHG. They were hired to publish the game. Not the same thing as Bioware who are owned by EA.

It will be really awesome when more developers start demanding that you use their client to play their games.

You might have just as well said, EA banishes a dozen more publishers to a dank pit and promises to maybe toss food to them some time in the near future.

I see what you did there Joystiq :D

1. The hat system doesn't do anything by change your cosmetic look. Anything that can be bought to improve your gameplay can also be earned or traded.

2. Origin has a bunch of nobody publishers now..*twirls finger*

3. Origin is still a spyware creep program

4. If people don't like Steam..why the hell would they like Origin? It's the same thing but terrible.

5. Valve is still Valve and hands down the best publisher in PC gaming atm. Why would anyone who loves PC gaming pick EA over Valve? You'd have to be a complete newb to PC gaming to make that choice.

Not sure if its true or not?
I read somewhere that EA push out KOA outdated Demo and it seems 38 Studios will lose a lot of sales because of it.
A lot of people seems not really very happy with the outdate Demo.

@Dol - Most people I've talked to or seen onlin actually quite enjoyed the KOA demo. Even as someone who generally could not possibly care less about RPGs (I only played it for the ME3 unlocks), I found it to be kind of fun.

So, no, I don't think they're going to lose a lot of sales because of the demo. If anything, I think they're going to gain sales.

I'll believe EA cares about PC gaming when the sports titles come back. Even then I won't install their spyware Origin until it lets me have a data collection opt out option like Steam.

Luckily, I can't think of anything these publishers have released that interests me. Hopefully they continue this trend while Origin exists.

Origin has horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible support. I can't emphasize the 'horrible' part of that statement enough to do it justice.

I decided to check out Origin in case I have to use it for Mass Effect 3. I started by trying to register all my Direct2Drive and Steam EA games into Origin. 6 worked and 3 didn't. I spent a long time getting nowhere with the incompetent email support, went to their twitter and they had my games added after about 3 messages back and forth. The client is pretty barebones and the Store page never loads. I can see myself playing a game on Origin if I absolutely had to but obviously Steam is way better right now. The twitter support was very good though.

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EA adds CD Projekt RED, Paradox, and nine other publishers to Origin

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:19PM Omega2822 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:22PM SmilinGoat said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:49PM lolkeits said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:32PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:42PM ttringle said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 11:11PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:25PM Ramen of Doom said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:31PM SmilinGoat said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:48PM Fakeassname said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 12:22PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:29PM Domintal said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:30PM yab said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:39PM srslyyou said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:47PM Fakeassname said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:55PM Teeree said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 11:15PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 12:33AM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 1:16AM Vidikron said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 10:00AM Nosada said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 9:12PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 9:59PM BoBsS said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:22PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:01PM ailurus74 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:07PM Renoxzor said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:20PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:34PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:40PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 12:29AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 11:43AM radioactivez0r said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:23PM Ender7 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:38PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:38PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:39PM ttringle said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:50PM Zultor said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 10:37PM ttringle said

Posted: Jan 24th 2012 11:37PM HellFlyer said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 12:28AM Traptz said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 7:38AM Dol said

Posted: Jan 25th 2012 9:59AM Mcmax3000 said

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