EA's Origin for Mac Released to Target Gamers on the OS X Platform

[Akshay Masand]

The popular video game publisher, Electronic Arts, recently announced the launch of Origin for the Mac OS X, a new built-for-platform version of EA’s videogame download service that will bring some of the company’s biggest titles to Apple’s desktop and laptop offerings.

The arrival of Origin on the Mac means Apple owners will have access to the all-in-one access point for titles such as The Sims 3, Dragon Age 2, Batman: Arkham City and LEGO Harry Potter (among others). According to EA Origin Vice President of Production, Mike Blank, “Origin is going to allow us to get games into the hands of our consumers as quickly as we can, to enable our gamers to connect with their friends and to enjoy their gaming experience as quickly and directly as possible.”

The new Mac-centric service, which has been in public beta since January, will give users a persistent user account, allowing them to download cross-platform games on multiple machines, with purchases and in-game progress saved to their accounts (much like Steam). The Mac service will be joining similar versions for both PC and iOS, which have 40 million active accounts between the two of them.

When asked about why EA developed the service to work on the Mac OS X, Blank said the Mac’s gradually increasing market share, as well as a vocal community of Mac gamers drove the decision. According to him:

We're seeing increased activity from our Mac gamers. In the past, we've brought games slower to market for Mac than for PC partly because the audience hasn't been at the same level. The growth of iOS and Mac devices, though, means we're starting to see gamers demand to play their games on devices that are becoming more prominent. I think, across the board, developers have focused on the PC platform, but I think you're going to start seeing some changes there. [Origin] is the first step in a strategy you're going to start seeing coming out of EA.

Origin for Mac (Official Site Link)

Those of you who are interested in downloading Origin for Mac can do so at the company’s website. It should be noted that a Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor running OS X 10.6.8 is a requirement.

Source: Origin

[JedixJarf]

I wonder, same ToS as windows? How will apple users like downloading an app that has the rights to scan all your personal data and send it back to the mothership?

[dennder]

I wonder, same ToS as windows? How will apple users like downloading an app that has the rights to scan all your personal data and send it back to the mothership?

L7 firewall like little snitch or hands off -> problem solved.
Shame not everyone knows what "l7 firewall" is, much less about OSI model and data transmission over network.
Even larger shame on EA for such blatant disregard for user privacy.