EA CFO Touts Origin's Advantage Over Valve's Steam

EA's Origin digital distribution platform can compete with Valve's Steam platform, since "Steam is dependent on a third party ecosystem," the company said today. As part of an EA presentation at the BMO Digital Entertainment Conference on Thursday, Eric Brown, CFO at EA, explained that the differences between Origin and Steam's offerings will help Origin gain users. "[Valve has] done a very nice job... it provides a pretty good customer experience," said Brown, replying to an investor's question. However, he noted that Origin has the ability to offer the entire EA first-party portfolio, while Steam relies heavily on third-party releases. "We already have high-quality third party publishers," he said, "and we're going to have more third-party content like Steam over time." The company had already previously revealed that games from Warner Bros. Interactive, THQ and Capcom are due to be added to Origin sometime this month. He also explained that Origin is expanding its mobile component, allowing users to interact with the service over multiple platforms. "We're able to provide a cross-platform experience ... that you don't see Valve and Steam doing," he said. Brown revealed that Origin has now seen over 6 million client installs -- around 1 million more than it had seen three weeks ago. He also noted that the average revenue per paying Origin user is currently between $45-50.