EA’s competitor in the digital distribution platform space, Origin, has been quick out the gates with 11 million registered users since its launch less than a year ago.

This is in no small part due to its decision to force PC gamers wanting to play Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 to use the Origin client. Likewise, The Old Republic MMO players wanting to buy the through a digital distributor have no choice but Origin.

The Origin ranks now stand at 35 publishers strong, with Sega being the latest big name to sign on to the service.

While a lot of users have been disgruntled with the service, particularly because it has been somewhat shoved down their throats, Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson insists that it’s actually a good thing.

According to Notch, a monopolized digital distribution market, as was nearly the case with Steam before Origin arrived, is “a bit scary.”

“I think it’s a bit dangerous to only have one digital distribution platform like Steam,” he said. “I love Valve, but out of principle, I find the idea of one platform a bit scary.

“So I like that there are others competing – for example, Desura and Impulse, who recently got bought by GameStop. It’s a good thing that there are more.

There’s no doubt that competition breeds a better product, but Notch does think that the Origin service has a fair few things they need to fix; in particular the fact that it is a mandatory install if you want to play an EA game.

“Origin does a couple things badly compared to Steam – which is impressive since they had eight years to study Steam,” he jokes. “They should definitely have a chance to do their thing, but they might want to move away from titles that make people use it and show people why they should use it. But I think, in principle, it’s a good thing.”

While most would agree with Notch, if Origin hadn’t forced users onto their service, at least in the beginning, it’s unlikely they would have 11 million users today.

Source: CVG

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