EA kicks off Origin sale

Hang on, don’t discount promotions "cheapen intellectual property"?

18 games have gone on sale on EA’s Origin network, with prices in some cases being cut by very nearly 90 per cent.

The leading offer sees Dragon Age: Origins cut to just 5. It normally sells for 40. Other games cut to 5 include Spore, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Batman: Arkham City and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

The news is all the more noteworthy in light of recent comments by EA Origin boss David DeMartini.

We won’t be doing that,” he told Games Industry when asked if Origin would be following Steam’s lead in offering random deep discounting” of software.

Obviously they think it’s the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The gamemakers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we’re not trying to be Target.

We’re trying to be Nordstrom. When I say that, I mean good value – we’re trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don’t look for 75 percent off going-out-of-business sales.”