EA Sports Executive Vice President Andrew Wilson's tasks now include management of the publisher's digital distribution service, Origin, and he's taken it upon himself to give it a makeover, aiming for its initial vision as a "service to gamers."
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz , Wilson revealed that Origin's current use as an online store veered from the original concept. "What we really had in mind in the early days was a service that made your EA games better; a service that made it easy to access games and update games," he explains. "A service that enhanced the experience of playing games, a service that helped you connect to other friends playing games, and a service that ultimately did that across all platforms, not just PC."
"Over the years ... there've been some permutations of that vision that have manifested as part of Origin," Wilson said. "What can we do now to really think about Origin in the next generation?"
Wilson plans to take Origin back to its very roots, thinking about how the service will serve players rather than EA. "I think the transaction component of that service has taken a disproportionate amount of the communication and mindshare of what we really try and provide, and the barrier that that puts in between you and the game that you want to play."
Wilson acknowledges that it'll take awhile to earn back gamers' trust, but he hopes it will one day become an enhancement to gaming, rather than just a hoop to jump through when we want to play Mass Effect 3 or The Sims.
"That's what you're going to see from us over the next year, which is really re-establish Origin as a service to gamers, not as a means to drive transactions."
