EA’s Origin Service To Waive Fees On Crowd Funded Games

Electronic Arts’ digital distribution service, Origin, will now be waiving distribution fees for crowd funded PC games.  Crowd funding has become widely popular through sites such as Kickstarter, especially with independent developers that lack the cash necessary to create high quality games.  Now it appears that EA is getting into the game by offering a 90-day waiver on distribution fees for developers that have “a successfully crowd-funded, ready-to-publish downloadable PC game. “

“The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President of Origin at EA. “It’s also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers.”

“Crowd-funded projects are like the ‘people’s choice awards’ — a way for gaming fans to express what they want to buy and play,” said Jane Jensen, President, Pinkerton Road. “It’s great to see a big publisher like EA acknowledging that and opening up distribution opportunities for these games.”   

“I have had a long relationship with EA and it is great to see them recognize and support the crowd-funded games model,” said Brian Fargo, CEO, inXile Entertainment. “Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience.”

Developers can visit www.origin.com/publishing to contact Origin for more information about the program.