14 DAY TRIAL // Peter Moore, the current chief operations officer at publisher Electronic Arts, says that it does not want to make its own Origin digital distribution service a direct competitor for the current leader of the PC market, Steam.
The executive tells Gamereactor.eu that he believes the rival service is currently doing a great job in offering a lot of variety for gamers, allowing the PC to become more attractive for some developers than current and next-gen consoles.
“They have a great catalog of games. It's got a broader catalog than we do, and a different focus on the business model than we have. We didn't go into business to compete with Steam. We went into business because we saw the future being direct-to-consumer,” he says.
At the moment, Electronic Arts is aiming to attract new users to Origin by running a new promotion called On the House, which is designed to offer free access to some high-profile titles of the past year for limited periods of time.
The problem is that some titles are using the digital distribution service to get access to the promotional titles, but do not actually use it to buy anything.
EA also introduced a Great Game Guarantee for Origin, which allows gamers to get a refund for a game within a 24-hour window after their purchase.
Peter Moore does feel that his company is not getting enough credit for the long-term support it has been offering to the PC market.
He adds, “We've been making games for the PC platform before Gabe Newell was graduating high school. And we've been the number one publisher forever, and have been the one developer/publisher that has supported the PC platform even more than Microsoft over the years. Yeah, you may say that's a low bar, but that's who we are, and our roots.”
The problem is that some upcoming titles from Electronic Arts, like Madden NFL 15, no longer have versions for the PC, a move that some gamers have criticized.
Other big autumn launches, like Dragon Age: Inquisition, FIFA 15 and Battlefield Hardline, are being offered via Origin at the same time that they are being delivered on the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 and current-gen consoles.
Peter Moore was once the leader of the EA Sports division at Electronic Arts, and he says that in his new COO position he wants to bring the publisher closer to the needs of the gaming public.