Origin Takes On Steam With Game Time Starting with ‘Titanfall’

EA has been pushing further into the digital retail space and now Origin takes on Steam with “Game Time” starting with Titanfall as the first offering.

Gamers who have the Origin client installed on their gaming PC will see a new option to download the EA shooter Titanfall and play it absolutely free for 48 hours. The timer does not start until the game boots up for the first time. After that you have 2 days to ride as many titans into battle as you can before you are required to buy the game to keep playing.

The offering of Titanfall on Origin is part of a new initiative from EA called “Game Time” which is similar in practice to Steam’s Free Weekend offers. The fact that this initiative comes at the same time that Valve launches the annual Steam Summer Sale is hardly a coincidence.

The Origin Blog game more details on the program. “Titanfall is only the beginning for Game Time and there’s more on the way. Each Game Time will be unique: different game, different time on the Game Time clock,” stated the post on the blog. EA has announced that as Origin takes on Steam with the new program the new offerings will be posted on the official Twitter and Facebook feeds.

While the Origin library is no where as expansive as Valve’s Steam offerings, EA is continuing to make inroads in making their service more attractive to gamers and third party publishers. The program is a direct response to the Free Weekends that Steam offers and has a few points to its advantage not counting the free games that EA has released on Origin such as Dead Space and Peggle under their “On the House” offerings.

Steam’s Free Weekends are exactly what they sound like: a weekend where a particular game is offered for free to gamers for the weekend. The difference is that gamers are limited to the weekend to play as opposed to Origin’s 48 hour clock.

Both Origin and Steam offer sales on their gaming libraries from time to time, but with Steam’s much larger library and the indulgent discounts they give gamers it is hard for Origin to stand neck and neck with Valve’s behemoth. The introduction of the badges on the Steam store have also led to a competitive nature of purchasing the bundles and sales that Valve tantalizes gamers with on a regular basis.

As Origin takes on Steam time and time again, we hope the trend continues as the person who benefits from this is the gamer and that is an offering worth supporting.