EA: Origin compares to XBL, PSN, Steam

EA wants the evolved Origin EA Store to eventually be a platform like Xbox Live or PlayStation Network or Steam.

In order to get there, EA will make more big games Origin-exclusive - "Only on Origin" - like Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"We are going to continue to be great partners for [shops] ... But at the same time you talk about platform exclusives like Halo or Uncharted, EA's going to have some of our own platform exclusives," EA Games boss Frank Gibeau told GamesIndustry.biz.

"If we can use exclusive content or other ideas to help grow our audience then we're going to do that because we're growing a platform."

Crysis 2 was recently pulled from industry leading digital distributor Steam. The game is now "only on Origin", although other smaller digital distribution outlets still offer the game. And that's apparently going to be a "long-term" recurrence.

Expensive and ambitious MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will, however, be a complete Origin exclusive - you won't be able to buy and download the PC game anywhere else.

Gibeau said this will help EA manage downloads and beta transferrals as well as "build an audience for Origin". "For a lot of reasons it made sense for an MMO, which is a highly complex deployment," explained Gibeau.

Eventually EA hopes to become "the worldwide leader in digital publishing" as it believes it is in packaged goods publishing.

"[Origin is] not just a retail site, it's a community, it's a platform, it has traits much like you see with Steam or PSN or Xbox Live, but it's unique to EA," concluded Gibeau.