It's not the same quality. It's a rebranding and slight rework of existing EA services. - Edit 1
Before modification by lord-of-shadow at 16/06/2011 01:48:16 PM
Which are terrible, terrible things.
EA is pushing it pretty hard though. EA games being removed from Steam (even if Valve did it because of breach of contract, EA's lawyers will have expected it and accepted it), Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefield 3 being exclusively on origin, Bioware's last few games requiring registration to BIoware's community site (which is being folded into Origin, if I'm not mistaken). Etc.
EA's thrown down the gauntlet. They want out from under Steam's middleman fees.
EA is pushing it pretty hard though. EA games being removed from Steam (even if Valve did it because of breach of contract, EA's lawyers will have expected it and accepted it), Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefield 3 being exclusively on origin, Bioware's last few games requiring registration to BIoware's community site (which is being folded into Origin, if I'm not mistaken). Etc.
EA's thrown down the gauntlet. They want out from under Steam's middleman fees.