Origin coming to Mac, adding achievements

Electronic Arts is expanding Origin to more platforms, including Mac, Android and Facebook, while adding such things as achievements and free-to-play games.

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Origin already has 21 million users, according to Electronic Arts, and it is hoping to bring in more people with the announcement that EA's answer to Steam and other online stores will be expanding to Mac, Android and Facebook.

Peter Moore, EA's chief operating officer, told Gamescom 2012 attendees that Origin will also be adding achievements and free-to-play games, as well as more improvements in an effort to continue the growth of the service.

Moore mentioned no time frame other than the upgrades would be coming later this year.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 14, 2012 8:45 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Origin coming to Mac, adding achievements.

    Electronic Arts is expanding Origin to more platforms, including Mac, Android and Facebook, while adding such things as achievements and free-to-play games.

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      August 14, 2012 8:53 AM

      Maybe we can get the Mass Effect 3 app on Android now then?

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      August 14, 2012 9:32 AM

      Origin is shit. The only reason anyone had it installed was because it was required for a couple AAA games. The service sucks.

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        August 14, 2012 9:38 AM

        origin itself doesn't suck. on some aspects, it's even better then steam. of course there are no decent sales, but origin has some things i like, for example: the fact that if i reinstall windows, i can just have to copy the origin games folder to have all my games back, unlike in steam where you have to do a backup every damn time. also, it can be used as an IM, unlike steam where you have to buy a game before you can use the chat

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          August 14, 2012 10:00 AM

          [deleted]

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            August 14, 2012 10:23 AM

            Not to mention the back-up utility built in the client.

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              August 14, 2012 10:35 AM

              I think he is saying you have to use that back-up utility which is a) incorrect b) not the worst thing in the world

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          August 14, 2012 10:32 AM

          - Steam works great just copying Steamapps, you can even share games with your friends this way
          - Who has Steam with zero games? What? Things like TF2 are free-to-play. This makes little sense. And there are much better IM solutions on the market than Origin or Stream

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          August 14, 2012 12:57 PM

          uhh...all you have to do is copy the entire steam folder and delete the clientregistry.blob and all is well. steam still wins.

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        August 14, 2012 9:52 AM

        What is so shit about Origin? It's like the cool thing to say these days. I loathe EA as much as the next guy but I don't see all the problems with Origin.

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          August 14, 2012 12:40 PM

          It's slow, clunky, and devoid of useful features. It's been out for more than a year and hasn't improved at all. Even if you buy into the argument that Steam had a head start and therefore, you should cut Origin some slack... Steam improved rapidly, whereas Origin has remained the same. I also think Origin doesn't deserve any slack. EA has the financial capacity to hire programmers to copy features from another program. It's not difficult.

          Basically, Origin gives the customer nothing. Steam actively enhances my gaming experience, while Origin sits in the background and does nothing.

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        August 14, 2012 9:59 AM

        Exactly the way I feel about it. As well as that OTHER abomination that shall not be named.

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          August 14, 2012 10:34 AM

          You probably mean Battlelog, is which case you are completely wrong Sir.

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            August 14, 2012 11:48 AM

            I meant games for windows live :(.

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              August 14, 2012 12:17 PM

              I thought you meant Uplay.

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              August 14, 2012 12:28 PM

              Ah, in which case you are completely correct, haha. Apologies for making you state its name.

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        August 14, 2012 10:05 AM

        [deleted]

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          August 14, 2012 10:17 AM

          It isn't bad but it isn't great by any stretch. It is missing lot of polish and integration of features if they want to go head to head with steam. Games like BF3 have a weird mishmash with battlelog and the plugins. They really could have rolled most of the features like Battlefield friends and VOIP in to the client. I think in a few years they will get these issues sorted.

          I' have no problem buying the exclusive titles from them but anything beyond that I'll stick to my normal methods of purchase.

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            August 14, 2012 10:36 AM

            Does it need to go head to head with steam? Or does it just have to be "good enough" so that people will still buy their product if they make it available exclusively through their service, thereby recapturing whatever Steam's cut of the $615 million dollars EA made in PC digital revenue over the last 12 months would be.

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            August 14, 2012 10:36 AM

            yeah, it is a bit bizarre to load the client then load battlelog and have features shared between them. I actually think Battlelog is a good platform though, and with the move towards javascript/html apps in Windows 8 perhaps developing that further would make sense. By far the best server browser I've used.

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          August 14, 2012 12:46 PM

          It is basically just another thing you need to have running.

          There are no benefits to having it. Patches? Games have been able to patch themselves for years, especially now that CDNs are everywhere and bandwidth is cheap. Friends lists? I dont think half the games on Origin even use the same system, never mind Origins. Server browsing? Nope. Community features? Nope

          Dice could have shipped BF3 without Origin and it would have been just as feature incomplete as it is now.

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        August 14, 2012 10:43 AM

        thank you, that sounds like a very educated opinion.

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          August 14, 2012 12:41 PM

          I use Origin all the time and it's absolutely true.

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        August 14, 2012 12:58 PM

        Luckily nothing I care for uses it. Unless EA puts out System Shock 3 I can probably avoid it for the foreseeable future.

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      August 14, 2012 9:38 AM

      [deleted]

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      August 14, 2012 10:29 AM

      [deleted]

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      August 14, 2012 10:48 AM

      While Origin isn't amazing, if this ends up bringing more games to the PC market then I'm all for it.

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