Origin Waives Distribution Fees for Crowd-Funded Games

^[1]Electronic Arts Inc. ^[1] has announced a program to waive distribution fees on Origin ^[2]™ for any developer that has a successfully crowd-funded, ready-to-publish downloadable PC game. Origin will provide distribution services free of charge for 90 days after the game’s launch, giving new crowd-funded games a chance to reach the growing Origin audience of more than 12 million registered users worldwide.

“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.”

Via websites like Kickstarter, crowd-funding has emerged as an exciting new method for entrepreneurs with creative game ideas to gather financial support to start their development ventures. Origin can help ready-to-publish games quickly reach a global audience of millions of PC and online gamers, ready for purchase, download and play.

“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.”

The Origin offer will be available to fully-funded, complete and ready-to-publish games designed for digital download to PC platforms. Developers will provide ongoing support for their games. Developers can visit the Publishing ^[3] page on Origin for more information about the program and to contact Origin directly.