Local EA Origin store pricing compared

EA recently re-launched its digital distribution platform for PC games. With EA Online now a thing of the past, the publisher has launched Origin, which it promises will be a far more robust and compelling platform for PC gamers.

Of course, Steam has been hard at work for years carving a space into the PC games market, and is now not only the industry’s dominant digital distribution platform, but is the world’s dominant platform for PC game sales altogether.

So EA has a long road ahead. However, with one of the the most impressive PC game catalogues in the world, if anyone can do it, it’s EA.

One of the most important things to take into consideration when looking at Origin is pricing. To compete effectively, Origin needs to at least achieve pricing parity with not only Steam, but also local retail.

Because EA has an official presence in SA, we have our own localised Origin store, complete with region specific pricing. As is to be expected then, the Origin store is locked into EA’s official recommended retail pricing (RRP) setup for our region. Unfortunately, the reality is that the only retailers who follow RRP in SA are the likes of Incredible Connection and Look&Listen. Core gamers often buy from the likes of BTGames, Takealot, Zaps and Kalahari, who all charge well below RRP, forcing us to ask whether a digital store with comparatively high pricing has a place in SA.

We have rounded up some local pricing to give an idea of just how well the local Origin store competes with our own retailers and Steam.

We chose Kalahari to represent the competitive local retail side of things, as their games are consistently well priced. ZapsOnline.com, Takealot.co.za, BTGames, Exclus1ves.co.za and our own MyGamingshop.co.za offer pricing that is comparable to Kalahari.

Steam represents competing digital distributors. There are many others, but Gamersgate does not carry EA games, and Impulse’s EA catalogue is region locked and not available to SA.

Finally, we have Look&Listen, which represents the mass store front side of things. Look&Listen competes with the likes of Incredible Connection, Musica and CNA. These stores tend to follow EA’s RRP, and are almost always the most expensive option for local gamers.

Steam prices calculated at R6.80 to the US$

Sadly, as expected, the Origin store is consistently a lot more expensive than core local retail. In the case of Dead Space 2, Kalahari is over R300 cheaper than Origin. The difference is not quite as pronounced on other titles, but the general trend is that Origin does not compete in this space.

Locally, Origin competes fairly closely with Steam, and bar Dead Space 2, there is little in the way of pricing discrepancies. For the most part, Origin is in line with Look&Listen, which indicates that it is following local RRP.

The problem is that RRP only really works at mass-retail, where the average consumer is not aware of the many cheaper options. In practice, Look&Listen and its competitors rely on their customers being ignorant of cheaper alternatives, while the likes of Zaps and Takealot strive to compete on price.

The Origin store pricing indicates that EA’s local online service is targeting the same market as mass retail, but the problem is that these consumers are not really shopping online, and if they are, then they are probably aware of the cheaper alternatives.

At this point, its hard to identify any value proposition in EA’s Origin store.

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