EA Origin has 9.3 million users, generates $100 million in revenue

Whether you like it or not, EA's Origin client is not going away any time soon. Launched as a director competitor to Steam, EA's PC storefront has gained significant momentum since its debut.

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Whether you like it or not, EA's Origin client is not going away any time soon. Launched as a director competitor to Steam, EA's PC storefront has gained significant momentum since the debut of Origin-exclusive titles, like Star Wars: The Old Republic.

During its latest financial briefing, the company revealed that Origin now has "more than 9.3 million consumers," and has generated "more than $100 million in non-GAAP revenue since launch."

Origin is now supported by various third party companies. Last month, the publisher announced partnership with CD Projekt RED, 1C Company, Paradox Interactive, and more.

While Origin's rapid growth will certainly make EA's investors happy, the service is still trailing significantly behind Steam, which currently holds over 40 million accounts.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter notes that EA has an uphill battle. "I don't think that most people care about Origin. And I don't think many people will switch from Steam to Origin unless a) Origin is cheaper or b) Steam screws up."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    February 1, 2012 2:30 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, EA Origin has 9.3 million users, generates $100 million in revenue.

    Whether you like it or not, EA's Origin client is not going away any time soon. Launched as a director competitor to Steam, EA's PC storefront has gained significant momentum since its debut.

    • reply
      February 1, 2012 2:41 PM

      Yay for lack for source information.

      • reply
        February 1, 2012 2:42 PM

        Oh nevermind "During its latest financial briefing"

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      February 1, 2012 2:51 PM

      if something as 'small' as origin is generating 100million, i wonder how much Steam is pulling in. Granted, they only get a small cut of the game sold, but still it has to be in the hundreds of millions..

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        February 1, 2012 2:55 PM

        "Origin" didn't pull in 100mil, BF3 did. Origin is just the distribution mechanism.

        • reply
          February 1, 2012 3:00 PM

          BF3 and SWTOR - now let's see them sell much of anything except exclusives.

        • reply
          February 1, 2012 6:16 PM

          This.

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        February 2, 2012 1:13 AM

        lol

    • reply
      February 1, 2012 2:56 PM

      Non-GAAP -- so they are just throwing a big number out there hoping the general public thinks they are kicking ass?

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        February 2, 2012 12:25 AM

        That could mean they're counting deferred revenue since preordered games is a good that hasn't been shipped yet so they cannot recognize that revenue the same way as one that has been released and shipped.

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      February 1, 2012 2:58 PM

      [deleted]

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      February 1, 2012 3:02 PM

      Wow. Origin and Pachter in the same news item. Way to put the worst of the worst out there together.

    • reply
      February 1, 2012 3:05 PM

      Origin is purely a platform to make investors happy for the next 2 years. Then they will be unhappy but the marketing team will have already fled with the bonuses :D

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      February 1, 2012 3:11 PM

      If STTOR has 1.7million active daily users then why does Origin only have 1 million daily users? Is Origin not required?

      http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/01/eas-origin-has-signed-up-9-3-million-players-since-launch/
      http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/01/swtor-sales-feb-2012/

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      February 1, 2012 3:12 PM

      Not surprised really. There is so much "I hate everything about this but here's my money anyway" on the Shack and in the video game market in general.

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        February 1, 2012 3:46 PM

        The only EA game I've purchased in the past 4 years is Shadows of the Damned; if anything, that hurt EA's bottom line more than it helped it.

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      February 1, 2012 3:30 PM

      Sounds like cooked numbers. Steam must be making billions and billions per year then.

      Most PC games barely even sell half a million copies. Only a few like BF3 will sell more.

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        February 1, 2012 5:50 PM

        It is cooked numbers. That's why they disclosed it as Non-GAAP. They could be booking revenue to Origin right now for 100 million years as that would not be a generally accepted accounting principle. As long as it is Non-GAAP they get to pull those numbers out of anywhere.

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      February 1, 2012 4:19 PM

      people can't "switch" to origin from steam... because many people already have hundreds of dollars (or thousands of dollars) in their accounts on steam.

      the question is wether or not people will actively support 2 (or more) digital distributors.

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        February 1, 2012 4:30 PM

        I won't. I'm sick of creating accounts with locked-in content. I already made my choices about which provider accounts I have, and at this point, the other services are worse in usability, terms of service, or game offerings. I also hate how many publishers are going with one distribution choice, so if a game goes into Games for Windows Live or Origin, it's trapped in that service. Or you're stuck logging into TWO online services just to play one game. It's terrible to see an open platform, and then 9 different services trying to turn it into their own walled-off closed platform.

        For example, how expensive would it be to have a game title released with both a GFWL version and a Steam version, and having both of those isolated, so you only have to log into either Steam or GFWL? That's nice from a user perspective, but probably expensive from a publisher perspective, since they have to come up with two different license key sets, two different DLC / patch infrastructures, two different account infrastructures. But most PC gamers already made their choice of distribution platform, and many are actively raging about a game if it gets "trapped in the other service". For companies like EA, Microsoft and Valve, locking in makes marketing sense, but for third parties, it's essentially burning bridges between them and half of their community.

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          February 2, 2012 9:02 AM

          Yeah, I'm in the same boat, although I just hate EA and decided I don't want to purchase any of their games.
          Which means I'm going to miss out on Mass Effect 3, but after pre-purchasing Dragon's Age Origins 2, they can go fuck themselves.

    • reply
      February 1, 2012 5:56 PM

      in related news, 9.29 million users download origin for bf3 and bf3 only.

      Next up on fox news:

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        February 1, 2012 6:33 PM

        ^^^ pretty much

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        February 1, 2012 6:47 PM

        those would be pretty amazing sale numbers for a PC game.

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          February 1, 2012 11:42 PM

          BF3 is 70% of that, SWTOR doesn't even have 2 million yet but rising fast.

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        February 2, 2012 12:04 AM

        well they sold something like 10 million in total (Console+PC) and console outsells PC by quite a bit.... So I have to disagree. I still dislike origin though

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        February 2, 2012 5:40 AM

        Don't forget all the people playing the Sims.

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          February 2, 2012 6:38 AM

          The Sims 3 and it's expansions are also available on Steam. The keys can also be entered into Origin.

          I much prefer Steam's version since it combined all the expansions into the base game so it only shows up once in the library. My Origin library just lists them all separately. Which is a bit annoying.

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            February 2, 2012 8:39 AM

            Retail copies install Origin as part of one of the latest patchs

    • reply
      February 1, 2012 11:40 PM

      That's because it's REQUIRED , this is not news at all.

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        February 2, 2012 5:43 AM

        holy shit you're a fucking genius

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      February 1, 2012 11:42 PM

      http://i.imgur.com/5Vnfj.jpg

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        February 2, 2012 12:20 AM

        Hehe, but sadly I doubt that will happen.

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      February 2, 2012 12:17 AM

      It has two enormous exclusives right now, and another one on the way (ME3). They can spin it however they want, as soon as a title doesn't get reviewed as a "must-have", they will be shown just how much the market values Origin.

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        February 2, 2012 12:20 AM

        Battlefield 3 and ?

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        February 2, 2012 1:15 AM

        oh man, give me a choice, DOOO EEEET!!!

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        February 2, 2012 3:47 AM

        I hope so. I'm sick of people blowing Origin's trumpet about creating competition that will be beneficial to customers.

        It won't. With Steam pricing set by publishers, prices won't change because they don't fucking care where it sells, as long as it sells.

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      February 2, 2012 1:24 AM

      [deleted]

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      February 2, 2012 5:23 AM

      Even the user count is probably padded. I'm guessing a large number of those accounts already existed due to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games as well as a small game called The Sims 3 requiring an EA account to use any of the DLC.

      From the Origin login page:
      "In the coming months your EA Account and profile will be upgraded to a new Origin™ Account. Your identity, order history and preferences will remain unchanged and we will notify you via email when this transition takes place."

      So adding in converted and queued account conversions with the Battlefield 3 PC accounts probably gets in the ballpark of what they claim. Doesn't mean even half of them are active or were ever intended for anything other than a throw away account so they could get Kasumi to cloak and stab a bitch.

      Granted, probably only half of the Steam accounts are even near legit, but still, those people still acquired an account intending for it to be a Steam account. These accounts were never intended for Origin and are just being converted because they hope they can get some user conversion.

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        February 2, 2012 9:03 AM

        yeah, good point. I got the email about my bioware account being migrated but I've never logged in or gone to origin.

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      February 2, 2012 5:43 AM

      Good for them. I honestly have nothing against origin now that I've used it for a while. It's certainly not perfect, but Steam wasn't perfect either when it launched. Having to deal with several platforms is annoying, but the competition makes up for it. Steam dominating the online sales market wouldn't be good for anyone except Valve in the long run, I believe.

      In other loosely related news, fuck EA for the "buy dolls for game content" etc bullshit. That shit really is annoying. Buying a game should be a simple, pleasurable process. Origin supports this, but having to think about where I buy my game from, when I buy it and what kind of shit I have to buy with it to get the full experience doesn't, it does the opposite, and just makes me want to not buy the game. Too bad it's ME3, so I have no choice. ;P

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      February 2, 2012 6:30 AM

      i cant wait for an Origin smartphone app i keed

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      February 2, 2012 6:40 AM

      lol Non-GAAP revenue. "Here's a number we just made up!"

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      February 3, 2012 2:21 AM

      EA are arseholes, so I'm gonna skip every game that requires Origin.

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        February 7, 2012 1:50 PM

        I was of the same opinion until they suckered me with Mass Effect 3.

        I'm tempted to wait and just forget it, see if it comes on Steam. I might just do that actually, fuck it, I'll have Diablo 3 and HotS to play.

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