EA: Origin has over 5m daily users

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 19 October, 2011

Fans "get what we're doing last".

Over five million people use Origin every day, EA has said.

The impressive statistic came as EA executive Peter Moore was heckled at last weekend's EB Games Expo in Australia, with one attendee shouting "Origin sucks!".

"The heckle today was about Origin, which is our platform for social, community-based interaction with our fans, delivering games directly to their computers, allowing you to see what your friends are playing at any given time and allowing you to communicate with them," Moore told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"And like any piece of software, and I worked at Microsoft for enough years to say this, you launch software and continue to polish it, upgrade it, get feedback and make it better. That's where we are with Origin. We're only four and a half months in and already over five million people are using it on a daily basis.

"As I said to the young man who shouted at me, I think two years from now we'll be back down here in Australia and talking about how it really enhances and complements the gaming experience, not gets in the way of it, which I think some people do believe right now."

EA sparked controversy earlier this year when a number of its games disappeared from rival service Steam.

The move was seen by many as an attempt to pitch Origin squarely against Valve's platform.

But Moore said Origin is "much more" than "just EA's answer to Steam".

"Like any great content provider, you want to provide yourself with a platform to talk directly with your customers," he said.

"You don't necessarily want to be constantly be disintermediated by the other platform holder. We love our business with Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo and with Apple and Facebook, all of which have platforms that we develop games on, and all of which have revenue sharing situations or royalties, but at the same time we love to be able to talk directly with our consumers and build a platform that other publishers can take advantage of.

"That's exactly what Origin is all about. And I don't think anyone begrudges us doing that. The console first parties understand what we are doing. I think the fans, the people that have to use it in the early going, are the ones that get it last in regards to what we are trying to do."

EA has launched aggressive promotions for Origin-exclusive content for upcoming games Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3.

But the digital platform is set to get its biggest test yet when FPS Battlefield 3 launches next week.

"Battlefield 3 will be the first real test of the stability of Origin," Moore said. "And that's why we did the beta. We're not afraid. Betas are always risky things because your painting is only half painted, you don't quite know where it will finish up, but you show people for free before it's finished and people criticise.

"We needed to put Battlefield 3 out in an open beta and are happy we did so, but it's a bit of a challenge when people who are not used to playing unfinished software see bugs and see servers crashing because we are load balancing around. I think we won't need to do it again once we have learned these lessons but I'd say that getting more direct to consumers faster so we can have this daily interaction is one of our core strategies."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TheNonk #1 7 months ago

    Erm, "use" or "have it boot up automatically in the system tray"?

  • bobfish09 #2 7 months ago

    Steam peaked at 3,868,989 users yesterday.

    I find it hard to believe they have 5,000,000 daily users.

  • LHH #3 7 months ago

    more like "5 million people need our service as EA games are now only on Origin!"

  • YGNUK-Munsen #4 7 months ago

    EA, when your games force you to use Origin, it's no wonder you get the 5 million users (and that's doubtable)

    At least Steam is a choice and a good one. you'll never get anywhere close to their popularity

  • misterdoctor #5 7 months ago

    Surely the tagline has a mistake?

    'Fans "get what we're doing last".'

    EA executive Peter Moore was heckled at last weekends EB Games Expo, with one attendee shouting "Origin sucks!"

    "That heckle today was simply because they don't understand, man," Moore told the Sydney Morning Herald.

    "Our investors get it, our employees get it, but the fans?

    The fans get what we're doing last."

  • Charlie_Miso #6 7 months ago

    This story was up on Screen Play over 36 hours ago, well done moving so fast Eurogamer.

    And you'll find Jason who writes Screen Play actually works for The Age out of Melbourne but Screen Play is syndicated to the rest of the Fairfax sites including the Herald.

  • The-Jack-Burton #7 7 months ago

    This has to be some twisted use of statistics, I'm callin bullshit on this one.

  • OrangesJoel #8 7 months ago

    I find the "daily users" thing very unlikely. All pre-existing EA accounts of any description have been transferred to Origin accounts, so it's possible that anyone playing an EA game online (one which uses their online pass stuff) on any platform is called a "user" in those stats.

    Also, ""You don't necessarily want to be constantly be disintermediated by the other platform holder."

    From a Google define search of that curious word: "In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: "cutting out the middleman"."

    So... basically exactly the opposite of what they mean. Learn to language, guys.

  • TheApologist #9 7 months ago

    @bobfish09

    I think that Steam stat is nearly four million concurrent, which suggests a lot more than 5 million daily.

    And of course, people being forced to download the thing in order to play your game, that is then set by default to automatically run with windows basically means bugger all for how it is actually being used by players.

    Also, worth pointing out that the last time I ran the Sims 3 it forced origin on me. So they have retrofitted it to their biggest PC franchise. So the 5 million seems believable, it just means nothing except more intrusive hassle for people who play games.
    Edited by TheApologist at 19/10/11 @ 09:21

  • magicpanda #10 7 months ago

    Origin does suck.

  • Frosty840 #11 7 months ago

    When I log into Origin, which I do automatically when I start Windows, even though I only have it installed so I can play The Sims 3, which I don't do frequently, I would expect it to, seeing as it's an online content delivery system, patch my copy of Sims 3.

    This is done through Sims 3's patching utility. Signing in to Origin is therefore entirely worthless for me, even though it gives EA a big, shiny "ONE DAILY USER" statistic.

    But, hey, closed platforms controlled entirely by the platform-builder are awesome, right? Right guys?

    Also, you people probably all have iphones and are therefore a giant bag of hypocrites, but, y'know, whatever.

  • bad09 #12 7 months ago

    How misleading. Of course it has so many users they been using it on EA store for years, and also to to unlock digital versions of discs on your EADM account. 5 million haven't just started using it because it's called Origin and now seemlingly their official DRM.

  • Clive_Dunn #13 7 months ago

    Well there you go, conclusive evidence that 4,912,126 people haven't worked out how to set Origin not to boot up when Windows launches.

    That's a stat FACT for you.

  • FarbrorBaku #14 7 months ago

    Good job EA brag about your shitty service that users are forced to use in order to play your games.
    Also steam has around 20-30 million daily users, so go suck an egg moore.
    Edited by FarbrorBaku at 19/10/11 @ 10:27

  • Diomedes117 #15 7 months ago

    Origin dosen't bother me. I open it when I wan't to play Fifa and that's it. I don't get why are there so many Steam fans.
    Do you like monopolies? They get 30% on all games sold. Game pimps!

  • DozyKipper #16 7 months ago

    @YGNUK-Munsen #4 said "EA, when your games force you to use Origin, it's no wonder you get the 5 million users (and that's doubtable) At least Steam is a choice and a good one. you'll never get anywhere close to their popularity"

    Erm, no it isn't. If you want to play Portal 2 or Half-Life 2 you've got to install Steam. Don't forget Steam started out just as craptacular as Origin currently is.

    The difference is I don't trust EA. They don't have PC's users best interests at heart unlike Valve. Ergo I'm not going to use Origin until people start shouting "Origin is the DB's. Steam is shit!"

  • deadstoned #17 7 months ago

    Yeah yeah BS EA 5million is total tosh

  • arcam #18 7 months ago

    The difference is I don't trust EA.

    Agreed. There are other differences between Steam and Origin, but for me personally, this is the biggest one and the one that really matters.

  • Cadence #19 7 months ago

    "disintermediated"

    WTF?

  • seancswash #20 7 months ago

    "disintermediated"

    WTF?

    [link url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermediation
    ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermed...[/link]

    snore

  • DirectAim #21 7 months ago

    In Origin I cannot find the setting to stop the program from loading at startup, I obviously removed it from MSCONFIG but many people using Origin wont know how to do that.

    I also cannot add other games I have purchased to Origin like I can with STEAM.

    IMO Origin is forced upon its users where by STEAM is chosen. STEAM is far better and everyone I play online with uses it. In Origin I have 0 friends. Only reason I have Origin is for BF3.

  • rudedudejude #22 7 months ago

    It's not really optional is it?

  • Gastrian #23 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • MaybeLater #24 7 months ago

    I don't suppose an EA executive can just come out and say 'Yes, we're ripping off Steam; it's a veritable cash-cow and we're in this for the Loot.'
    Hopefully Origin will ultimately a of a benefit- even if only in so little as forcing Steam to up the anti and put a little more effort in; Steam vs. Origin summer sales promise to be interesting.

  • arcam #25 7 months ago

    Steam vs. Origin summer sales promise to be interesting.

    Why will it be interesting? Origin only sells EA games, and there's not much in their past to suggest they will offer the kind of deals that make Steam sales so anticipated. Although I guess summer is still 9 months away, so it's possible things will have changed by then. Not that likely though, TBH.

  • Drygore #26 7 months ago

    I don't get the hate.. I really like steam as well, but what's wrong with some competition?? Origin is brand new and will ofc get better. Stop the hating, idiots..

    Eurogamer comments in a nutshell. . . Sigh.

  • Collymilad #27 7 months ago

    Lol.

    Yeah EA are evil and Valve are just angels and love you all.

    Seriously, some fucking fools going about.

  • bad09 #28 7 months ago

    @arcam

    It's not only EA games now, while that was the case they came out recently to say they'll start offering games from other publishers. So Origin is actually the direct competetion to Steam many thought it was at the start...well it will be as soon as they add non EA games.

  • arcam #29 7 months ago

    It's not only EA games now, while that was the case they came out recently to say they'll start offering games from other publishers.

    I know they want to, but I think EA might struggle to convince other publishers to sell their games on there. We'll see how it pans out, but I won't be surprised if in a year's time, Origin just has EA games and the odd token game from a couple of random publishers.

    @Colymilad

    If you think there's no difference between EA and Valve I can only assume you haven't been playing PC games for very long. The difference is huge.
    Edited by arcam at 19/10/11 @ 16:57

  • bad09 #30 7 months ago

    @arcam

    Yeah that's possible of course but it's no different from letting Valve sell their games for them. I can't see why EA selling for them as well to would upset them, surely more channels for distribution is a good thing?

  • arcam #31 7 months ago

    I would imagine EA are seen much more as direct competition for publishers than Valve. They release many many more games than Valve, and in much more competitive genres.

    Really, if Activision, THQ, Ubisoft etc. start giving 30% of every game they sell to EA, they might as well just sell up and leave the industry now. EA will become unstoppable and they know it. So I think all the other publishers will resist allowing EA to sell their games for them unless it becomes unavoidable.