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Despite a seemingly general feeling of distaste for EA's Origin service in the gaming community, with the fact that it's not just part of Steam and requires its own login, the security issues and of course the connectivity problems seen in titles like Sim City, EA has just announced in its quarterly earnings report, that it's surpassed over 50 million Origin users.
A big chunk of that player base is all down to Battlefield, with over four million paid subscriptions going to the BF3 Premium pack – suggesting that there are a lot more non-paying Battlefield 3 gamers out there too. This also represents a jump of over 10 million users since March this year, when the last total was announced.
EA's vice president, Andrew Wilson, said during the call that he believed Origin was evolving beyond its original aims as a content distribution platform, and was becoming more of a service to gamers.
In other EA news, its overall earnings were down a little with just $949 (£617) million – around $6 million less, year on year. However, revenue was up over Q1 this year, with a bump of over $140 million, bringing the total for the past three months to $482 million.
“EA had a solid quarter driven by continued digital growth and disciplined cost management,” EA executive chairman Larry Probst said during a call to investors. “We are also executing on a clear set of goals for leadership on mobile, PC, current and next generation consoles.”
Kitguru Says: I haven't used Origin in a long, long time and no real EA software since that weird downloader it had for Spore back in the day. What do you guys think of it?
[Thanks MCV]
And how much of that 50 millions actually open Origin? Personally I just see Origin’s icon when I launch Battlefield 3. The only interaction I make with Origin is “Exit button”.
Origin wouldn’t have that many users if people could play and activate EA’s content through steam. As said above, I also only ever experience Origin when booting up BF or Crysis, and what annoys me more, is when i finish playing all the ads it blasts on my screen for overpriced products from its overpriced store, where 50% off brings it to Normal prices.
I’d actually play the games I have on Origin if they were on Steam. As it stands, I rarely play ME3 and can’t get into crysis because origin is too much of a bother.