Moore: "Give us 18 months to two years" to perfect Origin

EA COO Peter Moore has said criticism of Origin is already dying off, but the service needs time to grow and evolve, just as Steam did.

"It's one of those things where I would ask give us 18 months to two years. And if we sit here two years from now, start looking at it then," Moore told Kotaku.

"We need to continue to add social layers so there is value to the consumer so it doesn't feel like, in their words, 'something that is mandatory that I don't want.' And it got off to a rocky start for all the wrong reasons which were mostly inaccurate: accusations of spyware. The EULA… We were clearly focused on by some folks who said, 'We don't like this. How can we start picking things apart?'"

That intense, negative scrutiny has died off.

"It's quieted down. I don't think you see the initial level of vitriol", the executive said.

Moore pointed out - quite accurately - that Steam suffered similar birthing pains.

"If you go back and dust off the transcripts of when Steam first came out, it had the same reaction. People didn't like it," he said.

"They provided, over the years - to Gabe and the team's credit - value to the gamer. Those first 12 months were very rocky."

Origin wasn't launched with the intent of taking down Steam, Moore reiterated - it offers an alternative.

"I think it's healthy for the industry to have more opportunities to go, if you will, to shop around, to find different things that you like, different content. The more stores there are for me in the mall, the more entertaining it is. I like the gamut. I like choice," he explained.

"We felt the PC business was having a little bit of a renaissance and we felt great opportunity with both Star Wars and Battlefield. Mass Effect to come. That this was the time to build out a true platform.

"It's an open platform. There is nothing I would love more than to have Valve's, everybody's games. We're talking to every publisher, as you can imagine."