EA wants Origin to become the primary competitor to Steam and they have mentioned that they will reach the top in less years than it took Valve’s digital distribution service to get there.
“The easy response to that is, ‘Well, gives us a few more years, and maybe we’ll be better than Steam,'” said Origin SVP David DeMartini to Gamasutra.
“That said, right now we’re not. … Steam took eight years to get where it is. We’re not going to take eight years, but we’re going to get there and go beyond.”
EA recently revealed that Origin boasts of a 12 million user base and has generated $150 million in revenue so far. In comparison, Steam has around 40 million total user base. EA wants to provide enough interesting content that makes the service quite different and a viable option to Steam.
“There’s one Steam. I think what people want to see is, they want to have another viable option. They want us to differentiate in a way that sets us apart,” DeMartini revealed.
“We need to take full advantage of that multiplatform capability that EA brings. We need to be able to visualize that in the service in a way that allows you amongst your circle of gaming friends to differentiate yourself or demonstrate your skills multiplatform versus other people you game with or who you are interested in their opinion.
“I don’t want to see Steam become bad. They’re a partner of us. They do a lot of good things. What I want is I want Origin to be differentiable and better as a service, which is similar to what Steam does.”
DeMartini had earlier also mentioned that Steam sales “cheapen intellectual property”, and said Origin won’t ape the same business model.
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