14 DAY TRIAL // The past weekend was a harsh one for Electronic Arts’ Origin digital distribution service, as a special voucher code offered to users who participated in a survey was exploited by people to get many free games.
Origin has grown in popularity over the last year and EA is always looking for feedback from users in order to enhance the experience. As such, the company organizes frequent surveys and, in exchange for participation, users get free vouchers with codes for discounts or for full-game downloads.
Such a code was leaked online so that everyone could use it, but it seems that someone at Origin forgot to secure it, so users could redeem it as many times as they wanted and got different free games.
EA quickly recognized its mistake but the damage was already done, as quite a lot of people filled their accounts with different games.
For its part, the publisher has decided to honor the sales made with the code although it will examine the accounts of those who repeatedly used it.