EA Origin Now Available for Mac

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

EA Origin Now Available for Mac

Mac gamers can celebrate the arrival of EA's digital download service with a Sims 3 sale.

Origin, EA's answer to Steam, has only been available to PC gamers--until today. After a now available for Mac [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121712-EA-Launches-Alpha-Test-of-Origin-for-Mac], with a catalog that includes EA games and titles from its publishing partners.

Origin for Mac has many of the same features as the PC version, such as cloud storage and social connectivity. Some games will have dual-platform play, allowing gamers to enjoy "select EA games" that are available on both platforms on a "newly unified (Mac/PC) My Games library." To celebrate the Mac launch of Origin and the 13th anniversary of The Sims, EA is throwing a one-day-only Simtastic sale [http://store.origin.com/store/ea/en_US/html/pbPage.origin-deals] on The Sims 3 and its various expansions and stuff packs.

At the moment, there are only 49 Origin games available for Mac, and nearly two dozen of them are Sims 3 bundles or expansions. However, it's still nice to see EA extend its services to Mac users, especially considering Steam has been available for Apple computers since 2010.

Source: EA [http://www.origin.com/us/news/origin-for-mac-launch?websso=1]

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[Sp3ratus]

THE DISEASE IS SPREADING! *ahem*

Well, makes sense for them to expand. EA seem determined to make sure Origin is here to stay. Can't really say I'm all that excited about it. It's not that I hate EA as such, I just prefer having all my games in one place(aka Steam). Oh well, good for Mac gamers, I guess(the few ones out there).

 

[Falterfire]

Really EA? THAT is your idea of a launch sale? Valve gave away Portal for free when they launched Steam on Mac and you can't give us more than a 50-66% discount on a single franchise?

I mean, I know I sound kind of entitled here, but these days if you want to do a real marketing event for a digital distribution platform, it'll take more than a one day discount on a single series. Steam offers a deal like this every single day.

If EA really wants Origin to be big, they have to at least pretend they're willing to compete with Steam. We PC gamers are kinda spoiled these days thanks to Steam, so if you want our loyalty, you'll have to be willing to be at least as generous as Valve.

To kinda prove my point: Right now as a special deal for a special event, Origin has Sims 3, a game currently 4 years old, at 66% off for one day only. Meanwhile Steam has Borderlands 2, a bestselling game that is less than 6 months old, at 50% off until Monday just because it's the weekend.

Yes, I am a member of the Valve Hammer Legion, and this is one of the reasons why.

 

[Mojo]

Really EA? THAT is your idea of a launch sale? Valve gave away Portal for free when they launched Steam on Mac and you can't give us more than a 50-66% discount on a single franchise?

Well, in EAs defence they once emailed me a 10% OFF coupon code with very specific redeeming conditions, so that as a result I could use it on about a whole 10 games I didn't want and could get cheaper on steam.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

yayy EA is finally lining up with the right customers, ones who love to over pay for everything and be restricted as possible!

OT: Meh, as much as i don't care for origin, i suppose it's their next step in the chain.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I thought Macs couldn't get viruses.

 

[the7ofswords]

More importantly, if I own, say, The Sims 3 and have played it on my PC and decide I want to play it on my Mac, will they try to make me pay for it again, before I can download it? (The on-disc version was dual-platform to begin with.)

Not that I really want Origin on my main work machine anyway. Just curious.

 

[the7ofswords]

I thought Macs couldn't get viruses.

It's not that they can't get them, it's that it's harder to write viruses that will work on Macs, and there are fewer Macs, so writing Windows viruses gives you more result for efforts, if you're the sort of person who wants to do that sort of thing. (It's a combination of better over-all security and security through obscurity.)

EA, however is just the kind of organization that would want to put their "Origin" virus everywhere, so this news isn't particularly surprising.

 

[Genocidicles]

Now Mac users can experience the joy of having Steam's retarded little brother clogging up their CPU too!

 

[Kmadden2004]

[sigh]

Typical, most of the games they have on offer I can get cheaper through Steam or the App store.

Sorry, EA, you've done right by me in the past, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to remain apathetic on this occasion... at least until Dragon Age 3 is released (or you port the entire Mass Effect Trilogy over to the Mac, whichever one comes first).

 

[Aeshi]

Given how the Mac version of Steam spent all of December unusable due to a memory leak, all of January unable to do anything more advanced than "run game" (if that) and most of February randomly crashing[footnote]and lets not forget that for every crash you need to spend 5 minutes Syncing the crashed game up to Steam just to get a chance of getting it working again[/footnote] all Origin needs now is a few more good games in its loadout and Valve might have a problem they can't ignore.

 

[flarty]

Good news. If a market for games opens up on the mac. More devs might be inclined to use opengl which in turn means easier time porting to linux or easier time emulating on wine. Thus giving gamers more choice than windoze. Personally id love to make the switch.

 

[Burnhardt]

If EA really wants Origin to be big, they have to at least pretend they're willing to compete with Steam. We PC gamers are kinda spoiled these days thanks to Steam, so if you want our loyalty, you'll have to be willing to be at least as generous as Valve.

They are releasing more of their library on Mac's, so that is EA being generous.

More importantly, if I own, say, The Sims 3 and have played it on my PC and decide I want to play it on my Mac, will they try to make me pay for it again, before I can download it? (The on-disc version was dual-platform to begin with.)

Not that I really want Origin on my main work machine anyway. Just curious.

EA support might let you if your lucky. I was able to add my Steam Sims 3 stuff to Origin.

 

[Doom972]

Really EA? THAT is your idea of a launch sale? Valve gave away Portal for free when they launched Steam on Mac and you can't give us more than a 50-66% discount on a single franchise?

I mean, I know I sound kind of entitled here, but these days if you want to do a real marketing event for a digital distribution platform, it'll take more than a one day discount on a single series. Steam offers a deal like this every single day.

If EA really wants Origin to be big, they have to at least pretend they're willing to compete with Steam. We PC gamers are kinda spoiled these days thanks to Steam, so if you want our loyalty, you'll have to be willing to be at least as generous as Valve.

To kinda prove my point: Right now as a special deal for a special event, Origin has Sims 3, a game currently 4 years old, at 66% off for one day only. Meanwhile Steam has Borderlands 2, a bestselling game that is less than 6 months old, at 50% off until Monday just because it's the weekend.

Yes, I am a member of the Valve Hammer Legion, and this is one of the reasons why.

Origin sales are very poor. I don't know how they expect to be a serious competitor to Steam when they are many steps behind on features and can't bother to make real sales. The only good sale I remember was a US-only one which worked with a coupon code for US users only. Since certain games, like Batman Arkham-City are region locked on Steam but not on Origin, I wouldn't mind getting some more games there, but the sales are too few and too poor.

 

[deathbydeath]

Really EA? THAT is your idea of a launch sale? Valve gave away Portal for free when they launched Steam on Mac and you can't give us more than a 50-66% discount on a single franchise?

Ah, but Valve offered Portal for free and a TF2 hat! That was the kicker (even though the free Portal was what got me into Steam, and I didn't pick up TF2 until a while later).

 

[jackpipsam]

I have had Origin on my computer since beta and I can say that they have updated it quite a bit and the 3.0 Origin does interest me with some of the upcoming features.

I don't see a problem with it coming to more platforms.
Don't want it, don't download it.
But don't suggest EA should stop because YOU don't like it.

 

[Quellist]

Wow, now MAC users can experience the wonder of overpriced shitty games and rampant bugs. Go EA!

Seriously though...no i actually cannot think of anything serious to say about this crap.