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.
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Got it standard as a digital download with my N7 edition.