Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Guides

Can EA’s Origin succeed on Mac where Steam hasn’t?

By
EA-Origin
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Electronic Arts may be struggling to regain its financial strength as the company transitions from the one-time wealth of console games to the more level playing field of digital distribution on PC and mobile, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t exploring every possible avenue of growth. The publisher wants a piece of the 54 million active user per month pie enjoyed by Valve’s Steam, and it’s spent two years growing its Origin digital platform to do just that. EA announced on Friday that it’s bringing Origin to one of the few growing personal computer brands in the market: Apple’s Mac. Based on the performance of competitors, though, Apple’s desk and laptop line may have a negligible impact on Origin’s growth.

“Our vision with Origin is to connect your gaming universe online, and today we’re taking a major step in expanding our service to reach Mac-based gamers worldwide,” said Origin VP Michael Blank in EA’s announcement of the service, ”In delivering great game content, connecting the Origin service across PC, Mac and iOS devices, and offering great value to gamers with dual-platform play on select EA titles, Origin is making it easier than ever before for gamers to connect and play.”

Recommended Videos

Dual-platform play, letting Origin users with both a Windows PC and a Mac play games on both platforms, is an appealing sales pitch. According to research firm Gartner, Apple’s Mac line accounted for just above 12 percent of the global PC market during the holiday quarter, but compared to the broader PC market, it’s maintained the steadiest growth. As the NPD Group discovered just three years ago, an enormous percentage of Mac purchasers also own PCs. Dual-platform play should help EA appeal to those users.

Related

The initial lineup of dual-platform supported games may not be a huge draw. Batman: Arkham City, LEGO Harry Potter, The Sims 3, and Dragon Age 2 were popular titles at one point, but their age limits their appeal as instant draws to the service.

An outdated game selection isn’t the biggest hurdle EA faces in finding an audience for Origin on Mac. With 40 million registered Origin users—though active client users on PC are closer to 11 million—EA has a base of gaming customers to build from, but that base has shown it isn’t especially interested in gaming on Mac. As demonstrated in Valve’s monthly overview, Apple’s OS X is the least used operating system amongst Steam users.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Lenovo ThinkPad deals: Save over $1,000 on the classic laptop
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 front angled view showing display and keyboard.

Lenovo has long been one of the best laptop brands, and a major reason for that is its ThinkPad lineup. The ThinkPad is a great lineup to turn to if you’re in search of something that can compete with the best laptops yet remain affordable at the same time. Lenovo is constantly offering up savings on ThinkPad models, and right now we’re seeing ThinkPad deals that will give even the best laptop deals a run for their money. We’ve rounded up all of the best Lenovo ThinkPad deals to make shopping for one more convenient. Below you’ll find the Lenovo laptop deals, as well as some information on why each ThinkPad model might be right for you.
Lenovo ThinkPad L14 (Gen 3) — $600, was $1,839

Affordability isn’t always front and center with the ThinkPad L14, but this deal sees its price dropped into the range of many of the best budget laptops. This makes it a bit of a steal, as you’ll be getting an Intel i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of super speedy solid state hard drive capacity. The ThinkPad L14 comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, and it has a fingerprint reader for security. You’ll also get all-day battery life with the L14, and it even has built-in 4G LTE connectivity so you can always stay up and running like a smartphone.

Read more
How to undervolt a CPU: Complete guide to undervolting
Intel Core i9-12900K in a motherboard.

Undervolting your CPU can be a great way to improve its operating temperatures and reduce its power draw, but if your chip is running too hot and heavy most of the time, undervolting can actually boost its performance too. Intel's top CPUs, like the 13900K and 14900K are prime candidates, but other CPUs can benefit from being undervolted too.

Interested to see how your CPU performs when it isn't redlined with all the power? Here's how to undervolt your CPU in just a few quick steps.

Read more
AMD’s gaming revenue is down by 48%, and it won’t get better
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card.

AMD has made some of the best graphics cards in the last few years, and yet its gaming GPU market still appears to be fairly niche when compared to Nvidia's gigantic share. This sentiment is backed by AMD's most recent earnings call, which revealed that its gaming revenue is down by a staggering 48% year-over-year.

Things have been looking kind of grim ever since rumors started spreading that AMD may be giving up on the high-end portion of the GPU market. There have been whispers that AMD may have had a perfectly viable high-end graphics card that it decided not to launch, instead focusing on the mainstream segment. The earnings call gives some context to these rumors.

Read more