EA are preparing for a massive war it seems (I kid, I kid), as they just announced that they have got 11 new third-party publishers on board for Origin. EA seems determined to compete in the digital distribution business, and this is just the first step.

What makes this interesting? They’ve got CD Projekt on board, that’s what. The publishers of the Witcher series and creators of the GoG service peddling their wares on Origin should be a big boost to EA.

You can download Rift right now from Origin because Trion Worlds are in as well. The other third-party publishers include –

Robot Entertainment

Freebird Games

Recoil Games

Autumn Games

1C Company

inXile entertainment

Paradox Interactive

Core Learning Ltd

N3V Games

There are some big ones as well like Capcom, and Warner Bros. Interactive.

While it may not match Valve’s Steam when it comes to the sheer userbase and third-party support, all EA needs to do is get more and more partnership deals like this, and they will be well on their way. Battlefield 3 and the upcoming Mass Effect 3 will provide a good hook to attract new members to the service.

Origin currently has 5 million registrations, compared to 40 million of Steam, so they have a long way to go. EA still has to gain a lot of goodwill in the PC market.

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