Origin offers free 90-day distribution for crowd-funded games

Origin is offering to waive the first 90 days of distribution fees for any crowd-funded project, EA announced today.

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Crowd-funding has exploded this year, thanks in no small part to Kickstarter, but even games that meet their funding goals will have to get it out to the fans. EA's Origin service is taking a generous step in that direction, by waiving distribution fees for the first 90 days on any game that has been successfully crowd-funded.

Origin's publishing page allows interested developers to fill out a form for more details and correspondence. This only goes for games that are fully-funded, complete, and ready to publish. But, EA doesn't mention an end date, so some of the games we've seen recently reach their goals might be able to take advantage of the program if it's still around when they're finished.

"The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal," said Origin senior VP David DeMartini, in the announcement. "It's also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers."

The recently successful Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project will be among the games taking advantage of the deal. "I have had a long relationship with EA and it is great to see them recognize and support the crowd-funded games model," said inXile CEO Brian Fargo, CEO. "Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience."

EA is mostly in the business of publishing games, meaning that crowd-funding is side-stepping its usual business model. But Origin does open the path to a healthy distribution business, and making an attractive deal for crowd-funded projects is a smart tactic as we see this shift in the traditional business models.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 18, 2012 9:45 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Origin offers free 90-day distribution for crowd-funded games.

    Origin is offering to waive the first 90 days of distribution fees for any crowd-funded project, EA announced today.

    • reply
      May 18, 2012 9:47 AM

      RIP Steam. I'm predicting a mass exodus of publishers based on this goodwill move by EA.

    • reply
      May 18, 2012 9:53 AM

      how much does that add up to? Does that mean they are waiving the cut they would have gotten from the game?

    • reply
      May 18, 2012 9:56 AM

      Heh this is actually pretty cool for them.

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      May 18, 2012 9:57 AM

      Still won't get me to install it.

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      May 18, 2012 10:08 AM

      I had a problem with an EA game last night, so I logged in to the service website.

      "Sorry, but this service is unavailable"

      Really? Your support is unavailable?

      • reply
        May 18, 2012 4:22 PM

        Their support team resolves 100% of the zero cases it receives.

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      May 18, 2012 10:40 AM

      i don't trust this at all.

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        May 18, 2012 8:36 PM

        I think this is pretty much just them trying latch on to the goodwill generated by kickstarter and pad out the 3rd party library.

    • reply
      May 18, 2012 11:18 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        May 18, 2012 11:19 AM

        while that very well may be true, how do you conclude that from this action specifically?

        • reply
          May 18, 2012 11:42 AM

          because everything they touch will become corrupted in the end.
          They will prob have this as a limited time offer until they attain market share.. then BAM... EA strikes again.

          • reply
            May 18, 2012 11:44 AM

            has anything in this article given you the impression that it isn't a limited time offer? i thought that was obvious. Steve Watts talks about the "end date" explicitly

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            May 18, 2012 11:46 AM

            Oh no a company wants to make money off its services someone call the police this should be illegal.

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              May 18, 2012 11:32 PM

              no apple is a company that wants to make money off of its services.

              ea is a company that doesn't really provide much of a service in the first place, it just kind of buys them from other people, and then shoves their terrible ideas on how to "improve" those services on those other people (either forcefully or through bribery) and when their improvements ruin that service they dump the service and pretend it never existed in the first place (unless you're an EA lawyer, in which case you remember it existed forever)

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          May 18, 2012 4:54 PM

          Because electroly, this is like the meth dealer giving you the first bump for free!!!

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      May 18, 2012 11:36 AM

      I'd rather participate in the Kickstarter and have the game DRM-free like what they described on the backer description, with none of the Steam/Origin requirement.

      For those who do not participate in the Kickstarter, i guess this is a good move, but I still like Steam much better than Origin for the support and the flexibility of things.

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      May 18, 2012 12:49 PM

      Cool for developers, but doesn't make a difference for the end-user. And I wonder if even the developers would prefer recommending the game on Origin instead of Steam due to EA's reputation and installed user base.

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      May 18, 2012 1:35 PM

      Since the Kickstarter for Wasteland 2 listed the DRM free option as a reward, they shouldn't force Origin support, right?

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        May 18, 2012 2:42 PM

        I'm not sure that Origin is an always-connected service like Steam, so I don't see offering an Origin download as some kind of violation. I don't even think you even need to have Origin installed to run the game.

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        May 18, 2012 2:55 PM

        Oh man please for the love of god don't let Wasteland 2 be only available on Origin! I paid $100 to help them make a game that is DRM free. I'd be cool with Steam... but I am no down with Origin.

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          May 18, 2012 3:06 PM

          You'd be OK with Steam as a DRM free solution, but a download service that you can uninstall and still run the game afterwords is a show stopper?

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            May 18, 2012 5:15 PM

            just because a games on steam doesn't mean it has to use steam's drm

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              May 18, 2012 5:35 PM

              SteamWorks is a hell of a drug.

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            May 18, 2012 8:14 PM

            Honestly I'm not sure what single thing made me hate EA so much, but I'm a full on nutter with hate towards EA. So ya I'd install origin if I had to to play Wasteland 2.

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        May 18, 2012 4:26 PM

        It's just another way for them to distribute the game when it's out. I wouldn't worry about it.

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        May 21, 2012 5:57 AM

        Why are you assuming it's forced?

    • reply
      May 18, 2012 4:52 PM

      Seperate NEW EA accounts required for every crow-funded game(s).*

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      May 18, 2012 10:05 PM

      Anyone know how Steam's distribution fees work? Website says:

      What is your revenue split?
      We don't discuss our revenue split publicly. Once we take a look at your game, we'll get to those details.


      Come on... No one REALLY gets in trouble for breaking an NDA.

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        May 18, 2012 10:06 PM

        Or how EA's normally works?

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        May 18, 2012 11:58 PM

        it's probably on a per-game basis. I imagine some devs probably get better deals than others depending upon their needs and resources.

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      May 18, 2012 11:42 PM

      Hey, EA. Fuck you for what you did to Bioware.

      That is all.

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