EA Steam keys can be activated through Origin

Steam keys for certain EA games work to activate their Origin counterparts, though some older titles aren't so lucky.

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EA's Origin digital storefront has a long way to win over the gaming community. One feature that may help is the discovery that certain Steam keys for EA games can be used on both digital platforms. PC Gamer reports that Steam keys for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect 2, among others, worked to activate Origin games as well. Some games (like the original Mass Effect) didn't work in testing, though, so the keys aren't always universal. They seem to work more reliably with recent titles.

The report also notes that Origin launches the Steam version of Dragon Age 2, and the Origin client auto-detects installed EA games. Since it can already do both, it's theoretically possible for the service to read EA games in your Steam library and populate your Origin library with them.

EA's push to give Origin platform-exclusives has been met with mixed reaction from fans. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be an Origin-exclusive digital download, and recent reports indicate that Battlefield 3 won't be coming to Steam -- though EA is reportedly going to make it available on other digital platforms besides their own.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 21, 2011 10:45 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, EA Steam keys can be activated through Origin.

    Steam keys for certain EA games work to activate their Origin counterparts, though some older titles aren't so lucky.

    • reply
      July 21, 2011 10:48 AM

      PC Gamer reports? I thought people were discussing that in the chatty weeks ago.

      • reply
        July 21, 2011 10:50 AM

        [deleted]

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          July 21, 2011 11:03 AM

          It's interesting because you've been able to do this for a long time (since before Origin was rebranded as such) but because of this Valve/EA dust-up it suddenly becomes "news".

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            July 21, 2011 12:08 PM

            Yeah, I knew someone who used this about a year ago when he decided he didn't want his games with Steam's DRM. I think he, as much as possible, created a new steam account for each steam game he bought.

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      July 21, 2011 11:03 AM

      dammit, I am unfollowing you on twitter in protest of stumbleupon links.

    • reply
      July 21, 2011 11:09 AM

      It's not just Steam keys that are accepted, it's also retail CD keys and serial numbers from other digital distributors (D2D, Impulse, etc).

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      July 21, 2011 11:32 AM

      So we're giving EA a pat on the back because Origin is accepting serial keys for their own games? Wow setting a high bar there...

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      July 21, 2011 11:38 AM

      Neat, so out of my 200 games in steam, 7 can be ported over to Origin. Wow sign me up.

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        July 21, 2011 12:51 PM

        You know at one time you only had five games on steam... food for thought.

        /devil's advocate

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          July 21, 2011 1:28 PM

          it's possible to get to 200 games without ever having just 5 given the existence of package deals

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            July 21, 2011 3:32 PM

            I think you missed my point... ie when Steam first started there wasn't much on there except Valve titles, and iirc it was more than 5 titles given the different mods / sp / mp that was split apart on titles:

            HL
            HL: OF
            HL: BS
            TFC
            Ricochet
            HL2
            HL2:DM

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              July 21, 2011 3:36 PM

              EA is never going to have non-EA titles though. Every developer / publisher / indie can sell stuff on steam.

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                July 21, 2011 4:23 PM

                You sure about that? Or are you just hoping that EA makes a new service and doesn't realize they can sell games on it.

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                  July 21, 2011 4:27 PM

                  EA is a mega-publisher, why would they ever agree to sell a competitor's product? Likewise, which publishers would want to hand their babies over to EA?

                  Valve got away with it because they were and still remain independent.

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                    July 21, 2011 4:52 PM

                    The whole point of a publisher is to sell stuff. They sell more stuff, and make more money. And why would competitors sell stuff there? The same reason they already sell games on a bunch of other competing systems. As far as I can tell, there's only one publisher that refuses to sell their products on competitors systems. Valve Ok, not entirely true, but the big publishers don't seem to have an issue with it.

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                      July 21, 2011 5:05 PM

                      Meanwhile, at EA:

                      Guys, guys. Listen. Why are we banking on this game that we've invested millions in to create and market to beat the competition? Fuck that! Let's sell the competition! Modern Warfare 3 - Coming soon to Origin! We won't profit at all like we would selling Battlefield 3, but we can make Activision richer! There's no conflict of interest, we wouldn't have to display it on the front page.

                      EA in unison: Brilliant!

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                        July 21, 2011 5:15 PM

                        Why not? They'd profit off of every copy sold, and there's no reason it would lead to MW3 eating up BF3's market share. If anything, having a DD site of Steam-level popularity would allow them to promote both games in such a way that BF3 looked like the better option.

                        Smaller scale, but Valve actively promoted two co-op zombie killing games, one of which was free, around the time they were pushing Left 4 Dead.

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                          July 21, 2011 5:20 PM

                          Valve isn't EA, they aren't beholden to any shareholders. Steam isn't for their best interests alone the way Origin is for EA. Compared to EA, Valve is totally impartial and independent, and an equal opportunity promoter on Steam, whose business is almost entirely separate from Valve the game designers.

                          You guys are fucking nuts if you think a game from a competing publisher will end up on EA's own service.

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                            July 21, 2011 7:42 PM

                            Seriously, wtf. People here living in the land of candies and dreams.

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                        July 21, 2011 9:22 PM

                        Where if it was sold on another channel they get $0?

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                        July 21, 2011 9:54 PM

                        [deleted]

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                    July 21, 2011 7:11 PM

                    "EA 'Would Absolutely Welcome' Other Publishers' Content on Origin"
                    http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ea-would-absolutely-welcome-other-publishers-content-on-origin/

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                      July 21, 2011 7:21 PM

                      Yeah sure, they say they are open and would welcome it rather than appear so utterly controlling like they actually are, but under what terms and conditions would? And which publishers would jump through those hoops to have their direct competitors selling their games?

                      They'd say anything to present their brand new service in best possible light, but what would they actually do? What would another publisher do?

                      It's not going to happen.

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                  July 21, 2011 4:38 PM

                  Wow.

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                    July 21, 2011 5:38 PM

                    Wow indeed. A rival publisher like Activision or Ubisoft or TakeTwo or Zenimax would create and support their own delivery method before ever considering to join EA's, and that's forgetting all the other digital distributors they would gladly team up with and support long before resorting to giving a slice directly to the enemy.

                    And EA would never promote and sell and finally support a competitor's game on their own service like that in the first place. They are in it for themselves, as they always have been, as every publisher is.

                    Do they think it's preposterous enough it might just happen? I'm at a loss for words. It'd be just as insane as Microsoft and Sony teaming up and selling Uncharted on the 360 and Gears on the PS3.

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                      July 21, 2011 6:06 PM

                      This is the one case where Activision's WE LIKE MONEY policy serves them well. They know Steam is the best market for their game on PC and know better than to try fighting their digital store.

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                      July 21, 2011 7:18 PM

                      Then they will never compete with Steam in any significant way.

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                        July 21, 2011 7:28 PM

                        Are they trying to compete with Steam? I thought they were trying to sell their own games at the most profit and under their own terms with the highest amount of control of they can possibly inflict upon it.

                        No giant publisher is going to compete with Steam, because they'll never get all the other publishers on board the way Steam has no matter what bullshit they try to pull. It's going to remain an EA specific service for EA games.

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                          July 21, 2011 7:41 PM

                          Are they trying to compete with Steam? I thought they were trying to sell their own games at the most profit and under their own terms with the highest amount of control of they can possibly inflict upon it.

                          Then why haven't they removed their games from every other DD service's catalogue?

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                            July 21, 2011 8:05 PM

                            They haven't removed anything from Steam, either. Valve are the ones who pulled Crysis 2, remember?

                            They are choosing to ignore Steam with future products though, perhaps because the other digital distributors (and retailers) are more inclined to let EA be EA and do whatever they want just so they can keep their business? Fuck if I know. Wherever their new games are sold, whether it's retail or online, they'll come bundled with Origin anyway. If service A is more accommodating than service B, why bother with B?

                            I don't know if you remember this, but back in the Xbox days EA wouldn't support Xbox Live because they wanted a cut from the subscriptions and control of their own servers. Microsoft eventually bowed down and gave them what they wanted because for a few years, only the PS2 was getting Madden online, which was huge. They demand that sort of control, and not just so they can shut down their servers for older titles and force people to buy the newest if they want to play online.

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              July 21, 2011 7:00 PM

              And you seem to be missing the point that back then there was no established digital distribution service, and now there is. Furthermore, you're relying on the what-if of Origin expanding their catalog to include other large publisher's games. Even if it happens, why would someone with a substantial Steam library want to switch?

              Currently, there's at least the negative of no auto-updates on Origin.

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              July 22, 2011 11:29 AM

              But Steam gave and give benefits to users and developers.... Origin doesn't give any real advantage, only problems.

    • reply
      July 21, 2011 11:45 AM

      And with bfbc2 and some others , if you have the normal ed on steam you select the digital deluxe ed on origin, ad in free vietnam addon .... old news move along

    • reply
      July 21, 2011 11:57 AM

      The report also notes that Origin launches the Steam version of Dragon Age 2

      Well, shit then, EA, just lemme buy it on Steam and launch it through Origin!

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        July 21, 2011 12:04 PM

        Were it only that simple MercFox1

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      July 21, 2011 12:04 PM

      i would never want to use this feature. i dl'ed Origin last night and wasnt too impressed so far.

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        July 21, 2011 3:34 PM

        I dl`d the client. 42 MB, while steam is much less than that.:O

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          July 22, 2011 12:20 AM

          Or is it... keep in mind that the steam installer then downloads.. well, the rest of steam.

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      July 21, 2011 1:28 PM

      wow... but i already have them on steam. Why would i do that EA!

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      July 21, 2011 1:41 PM

      Besides (variable) morals, what prevents a person from giving Steam activated keys to a friend with an Origin account? Are the keys deactivated in Steam after Origin activation?

      With all the piracy-phobia in the industry, this seems like an odd decision.

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        July 21, 2011 2:04 PM

        The CD keys are still the same, so I'd imagine you couldn't go online from two different places at the same time with the same key.

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          July 21, 2011 3:41 PM

          its tied to an email address so that wouldnt work

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      July 21, 2011 2:04 PM

      ive been able to do this since Origin was EADM.....how is this news?

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        July 21, 2011 2:19 PM

        Origin was never EADM. EADM was a rebranded digital river client. Origin is new and in-house.

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          July 21, 2011 2:36 PM

          All the games I owned on EADM showed up on Origin when I installed it. It may be a different piece of software but it's using the same user data.

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            July 21, 2011 3:52 PM

            Agreed, just trying to clarify that they didn't just dust off the EADM code and call it Origin, Origin is a new separate thing that probably re-uses some of the EADM data.

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              July 21, 2011 8:54 PM

              Actually Origin IS EADM... if you had it on you computer when they did the change it only updated and changed the name from EADM to Origin, it has the same interface that the last EADM version had, including that empty friends list.

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          July 21, 2011 3:08 PM

          If it was a digital river client, why would it accept cd keys from retail or steam copies of the game? This story tells me nothing new because when EA was using EADM, I could do the exact same thing they are reporting above, about 2 years ago now.

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            July 21, 2011 3:53 PM

            Because that's how EA configured it.

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              July 21, 2011 4:41 PM

              Can't publishers just generate their own keys and send them to Valve to tie into Steam? I remember Prey getting shut out of Steam because 2K literally ran out of keys to send Valve.

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      July 21, 2011 4:35 PM

      Now that this is announced, can EA please acknowledge that its Global War on Steam exists and is under way?

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      July 21, 2011 5:43 PM

      You can add Mass Effect (and a few other games that wont add otherwise) by entering the CD Key at this site https://activate.ea.com/gameactivation.do

      After you've added the game, refresh the origin games list and they should appear

    • reply
      July 21, 2011 5:55 PM

      [deleted]

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      July 21, 2011 8:19 PM

      Let me know when keys from Origin can activate Steam copies. I want to nuke this shit from my system. :(

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        July 21, 2011 8:21 PM

        Is Origin really that bad?

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          July 21, 2011 8:23 PM

          Yes and no.

          Yes in that I have to download installer files, run the install, and type in a CD key that origin itself is showing me. Plus in my case, the fucking key that THEIR system is giving me, doesn't work in the installer.

          No in that if their shit actually worked, I might not care.

          I made an OP about it like 5 minutes ago.

    • reply
      July 24, 2011 10:47 PM

      To bad you can't put in games you bought long ago into it...

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