14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has recently announced that it will use the Origin service from Electronic Arts to authenticate all those who will play video games from the publisher on the upcoming Wii U home console, but one leading company executive says that the full Origin will not appear on the platform when it launches.
Peter Moore, the chief operations officer at Electronic Arts, tells CVG that, “We haven’t made any announcements on that.”
He adds, “Origin continues to be a PC-centric service, one that’s moving quickly to mobile, but as things evolve in the coming years we’ll look at where the demand is. But at the moment Origin is very much PC centric and mobile centric.”
It’s unclear why Electronic Arts wants to allow Origin to run on mobile devices and help distribute video games on them and why the company is skeptical about bringing it to the next generation of home consoles, of which the Wii U is the frontrunner.
The relations between Origin and the Wii U might remain similar to the one that Valve has established with Sony for Steam, which can be used for authentication on the PlayStation 3, but which does not directly distribute games on it.
EA itself would probably love to get Origin running on as many devices as possible, but platform holders like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have been reluctant to allow full digital distribution on their hardware.
Rumors suggested that Sony would introduce its own complete solution on the upcoming PlayStation 4, but the company has not yet officially announced any plans.
At the moment, Origin is competing with the likes of Steam, Gamersgate and GameStop on the PC.
The Wii U will be launched on November 18 in the United States, on November 30 in Europe and eight days later in Japan, with a number of EA titles, including Mass Effect 3, offered on launch.