EA’s senior VP of global ecommerce David DeMartin, in an interview with MVC UK:

I didn’t expect to be able to out-feature Steam within the first 12 months. But I’m quite optimistic we will differentiate ourselves as a service. We’ve built the foundation and now we are starting to add value to the service off of that foundation.

Origin already has Steam beat on a few features: its UI looks way better and it lets you save installers and games anywhere you want. I’m happy to have competition in digital PC game delivery.

But EA has some huge hurdles to overcome. The informed gaming community doesn’t trust them, they’re more focused on protecting their intellectual property than - you know - actually getting people to play their games, and they’re a titan in many genres.

Why would Ubisoft (or anyone, really) release a first-person shooter on EA’s Origin service, knowing it’ll sit right next to the latest Call of Duty or Battlefield game, which EA promotes with all their might? Valve’s slow release cycle is a boon for Steam, letting other titles grab the spotlight.

Good luck, EA. You’ll need it.