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EA says it’s “attempting” to make Origin a better download platform than other digital portals available on the market, comparing its move to out-do Valve’s Steam service as the equivalent to Facebook taking on MySpace.
“If MySpace had stayed the one answer in social networking and no one switched to Facebook, then we’d all be stuck on MySpace right now and we wouldn’t have had the Facebook phenomenon,” EA’s senior VP of global ecommerce David DeMartini told MCV.
“There are better mousetraps that ultimately get built out of innovation and the only way you get to the innovation is to have other people try and do a better version of what someone has previously done. And that’s what we’re trying to do with Origin.”
The battle for digital supremacy between EA and Valve was heightened when EA relaunched its EA Store last year, rebranding it as Origin.
But back in April, Valve CEO Gabe Newell said that “EA had a lot of work to do to get to where they need to be”, adding that he “[didn’t] think they’re doing anything super-well yet”.
“Gabe was quick to point out in the first time he ever spoke about Origin publicly that he didn’t think we’d achieved that yet,” continued DeMartini.
“I would agree with that – we’re on a path of constant improvement. I didn’t expect to be able to out-feature Steam within the first 12 months. But I’m quite optimistic we will differentiate ourselves as a service.
“We’ve built the foundation and now we are starting to add value to the service off of that foundation.”
DeMartini believes that Origin is “making huge progress”, saying that the service attracted over $150m in revenue over the last 12 months, representing 400 per cent growth over the previous year.
“EA is in a really interesting place,” he continued.
“We have this bar that is set so high, so that whether it is any of our games or services, we want to be 90 plus Metacritic at everything.
“Origin is moving in that direction. We are not there yet. We understand that. But we are going to get there soon.”
