I saw this on a story over at gamespot. They also say that latest numbers put Steam users on 50 million. That's actually much closer than I thought. I know that the Steam crowd is more active than the Origin crowd, but still, 40M is an impressive number.

Seems like Origin is doing pretty well despite the initial response. What do you guys think about all of this? Could Origin one day overcome Steam as the leading digital distribution platform?

Most people just like playing games and don't give two shits whether it's launched via Steam or Origin. The people who complain about having to use Origin to launch a game rather than Steam clearly have too much time on their hands because it's really a non-issue for any sane person.

Well, if Activision and the other remaining big publishers pull all of their games from Steam, it would really erode Steam's value. It'd still be great for many things, but it wouldn't be the omni-service it once was.

And that isn't far fetched. Many of Activision's big games are already not on Steam. They are on Battle.net, and doing just great. And each company that sees the hated, flagging, EA, pulling in 40M users has to be thinking it'd be better for them.

HOW!?

Well origin does have an advantage over steam, being that it has EA games which are far more plentiful then Valve games. That being said i still don't have an origin account and won't have one till i eventually get around to playing Mass Effect 3. I think it's possible in terms of number of accounts Origin could pass over steam, but in terms of number of purchases and user activity Steam will remain number one for a long long time.

I like Origin's interface more than Steam's personally. It looks cooler and cleaner.

Hmm, that seems fishy because according to the stats page, Steam is hosting 4.6 million users right now with a peak of 5.7 million users. 50 million Steam users seems very low. I have no idea if 40 million Origin users are accurate either.

In terms of revenue? No. Origin is a hit-it-and-quit-it service whose draw is exclusive releases by EA. It's deeply unlikely that EA will gain enough traction among PC-centric players to make Origin anyone's #1 content provider. I suspect that Valve would literally have to drive customers and developers away through some abominable act in order for Origin to have a genuine shot at taking the throne.

40M registered users or 40M active users?

Origin is fine, but I launch it through steam for the overlay. Also because I find it amusing.

meh- not surprising given it's run by one of the largest and most prolific publishers on the planet. but i haven't bought in yet- there hasn't been a reason to, at least for for me. i've been able to get every exclusive i've wanted on the 360, and it really doesn't have the feature-set of steam to get me to jump in.

There are 4 Different service i use:

Steam

Origin

uPlay

Mac Game Store

Competition makes sales, sales for us.

My capitalist dog attitude thinks competition just makes everyone stay on their toes. I really think that if it wasn't for Steam being the juggernaut it is, Origin would be a much, much worse service than it is. Otherwise, it's fine for when I'm playing EA games every now and then.

Having people register and play Battlefield 3, Star Wars Old Republic, and now Sim City, there's no doubt enough there to have a ton of users. I bet the concurrent users tell a different story, though. Origin just doesn't have the base like Steam does right now.

40 vs 50 millions doesn't mean much since every EA accounts have been converted to an Origin account. The more meaningful measure here is 1.3 millions concurrent users for Origin vs 5.7 millions for Steam. So Origin has somewhere around 20-25% of Steam's actual user base. Not bad at all but not surprising considering the massive catalog of games EA has.

And then you have to consider how many use Origin exclusively for EA's games. I do, i don't mind the platform but i'm not going to start spreading all my games across multiple platforms if i can consolidate most of them in one spot. That spot being Steam, whether i buy directly on Steam or GMG or Amazon doesn't matter.

Their deals are lacking, simply don't compete with steam (most of the time). However, I think the client is totally fine, I would go as far to say that I like it.

40 million accounts, where of 30 million are dummy-accounts bought by Johnny Ravioli before his departure.

I'm one of those 40 million. I have an Origin account but I don't have origin installed and I haven't logged in since I downloaded SHIFT 2 (two years end of this month). "Users" is one of those vague metrics that look great on paper but aren't really saying what they are positioned as saying.

They probably use the same inflation formula for sim city to figure out the user pop for origin. /ba dum tiss

So i am insane for rejecting a service that was created with the sole reason of earning EA more money? I am getting a worse experience so that they can get a bigger cut, by using origin and buying their games there you are telling them that consumers do not care how they are treated.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-06-david-demartini-origin-wants-to-be-the-hub

EA thinks sales are bad and that they hurt the industry.

I totally agree with you on everything you said. Why would i want to spread my game licenses and friends across multiple servers when every other publisher puts out their games on steam?

@expensiveham: Well if you think that making money isn't exactly what every single company that publishes video games set out to do then yes, you are insane. Valve didn't launch Steam because they are really nice guys, they launched it as a controlled environment to sell their product, Origin is EA doing exactly the same and Uplay is Ubisoft's version.

If you don't like EA because you don't like their games or how they've handled several PR situations then fine, but Origin is a perfectly fine service and no different at all from Steam or Uplay.

@extreme_popcorn said:

Of course every company wants to make money. But plenty of EA's business practices just feel greedy and disgusting. Origin is just one of those things. And yes, as a client it works fine but the only incentive for me to use it are the exclusive games, everything else works better on steam. And yes ubisoft uses the uplay client but you can still get all their games on steam.

As someone who has seen hours of interviews and talks with John Riccitiello and Gabe Newell i can tell you that one of them truly cares about the industry and the other wishes he could sell you bullets as DLC.

Oh you mean that steaming pile of shit Origin? That disgusting garbage that killed my family and then raped it? That vile excrement Origin? Origin turned my daughter to drugs and prostitution.. she started building a city, all those roads and tracks, it was downhill from there. I'll never forgive Origin..

Exclusive games tend to help with that, say Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, SimCity...etc. So, yes this number don't surprise me much to be honest.

@expensiveham: You cannot compared Gabe Newell and Riccitiello in how they conduct business, Gabe Newell has the advantage of being the owner of a privately held company where as Riccitiello had lots of shareholders to deal with.

It should also be noted that a big gripe people with Origin is their EULA is very much more restrictive than any of the other competition. People saw this in play during the SimCity fiasco where as a last resort someone killed the charge on the charge from Origin to try to recover their money form what they saw as an misleading transaction and got their entire account suspended. As expected they couldn't play SimCity any more but they also couldn't play anything else on Origin either.

I think competition is great in this space where I was a little worried at one point a year ago Steam would run away with the entire market. But it wasn't Origin that made me realize that I shouldn't be concerned. It was Blizzard Games and Riot Games have substantial traffic and they have zero interest or need for Steam.

An interesting side topic: How friendly is Origin for the Indie Side or Classic? In my mind you go to GoG for classic games while you go to Steam for small/independently published. Is anyone even trying to publish older or small games on Origin?

@extreme_popcorn said:

Not trying to say Riccitello is the antichrist. He is just someone who cares more about pleasing shareholders then customers. So yeah maybe a lot of EA's decisions are based on the reality of the industry and pressure from shareholders but i don't see how that makes anything better or excusable.

No, nothing that i know of. They have the EA Partners Program but they don't exactly take any risks with that.

Being the only way to get EA releases on PC its easy to see how it has that many users. Personally i like the "My Library" section in Origin over Steam's, i like how it looks (cleaner with box art instead of Steams weird grid view). I dont like having multiple clients though, while i can handle 2 uplay can fuck off

@humanity said:

I am guessing you are referring to what i wrote? I suggest you take a closer look at what i wrote before you attempt to ridicule me. So if you want to make rape jokes you should at least make them about EA.

Origin as a service is OK, it is just a small step down from what is offered on steam but far worse in terms of sales. The Origin client works adequately. But it is the business decisions behind the creation of Origin and the general behaviour of EA that has caused me to stop buying EA products and services.

How is voting with your wallet such a hard concept for gamers to grasp? If i feel a company has wronged me in the past and that they are doing the industry a disservice then i am not going to give them any of my money. Are you implying that i am wrong for doing so and that consumers should just put up with anything and give them our money regardless?

@expensiveham: I actually didn't even see your post when I wrote that up.

This makes my neck beard hurt.

Many of EA's franchises belong to my regular gaming diet, many of the EA Partners stuff is cool, and Origin has been treating me right thus far. It's not yet as robust as Steam in terms of usabiltiy and functionality, and certainly not in terms of community, but it's been a solid service for me. I guess Sim City players don't share that view anymore, rightfully so. Regardless, good for EA. Yet another thing EA got right under the reign of Riccitiello.

Origin is perfectly serviceable.

There is also the case of all EA account are also Origin accounts. My EA account I made for BF2 is also my current Origin account.....weather I use the service or not.

That's not too surprising since you can only get most new EA games through the service. They also do run some decent sales from time to time.

But I have 5 games + some expansions on my Origin account, and I have 392 games on my Steam account.

Origin is peachy, it's actually becoming less obnoxious than Steam.

Origin is just fine.. I love the the built in twitch support!

this x1000

I got an origin account just by playing an EA console game. I doubt those are legit users who are buying things from the service. Probably insanely inflated. Especially if steam is only 50m, then I'm sure it's BS.

Yeah I imagine they're inflating their numbers that way. I have no issue with Origin but that would be an obvious EA move.

Valve > EA

see i use origin to play the EA games,

Origin is having a pretty big sale in honor of this and you can catch some good ea titles on the cheap

Origin is mostly fine. Still, I find it hard to use them over steam when they can't be bothered to compete. Their sales are fucking pathetic =/

5 million of those people are playing The Sims 3 so they don't count.

Good. Competition is healthy, and only benefits us in the end.

Eh, Origin is fine. For as much as it screws with my OCD desire to have all games under one client, it has not exploded nor murdered anyone. Of course, the only exclusive game I own for it is Dead Space 3, along with some steam games that I put the CD keys in for (i.e. Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age Origins).

Clearly pretty hugely-inflated numbers, as evidenced by the concurrent users comparison. I'd also be more interested in a comparison of average number of games per account on each service.

I have an Origin account because I have a couple exclusives, plus a handful of games that it pulled in from my Steam library, and haven't logged into it in probably close to six months. Comparatively, I have 836 games on Steam and am never not online.

Also, the sales don't compare to Steam in the slightest and the store navigation is ass. The search is nearly impossible to use to actually find what you're looking for (i.e. searching Mass Effect 3 returns all games with a 3 in the title) and, from what I can tell, you can't browse most DLCs from the game's page, and again, they're pretty hard/impossible to find using the search.

40 million seems like a grossly inflated number.