Newell doesn't think EA's "doing anything super-well yet" with Origin

Gabe Newell thinks EA has it's work cut out with Origin in order to catch up with other digital services such as Steam.

Speaking with the Seven Day Cooldown podcast in an oft-quoted interview, Newell said despite this, EA has "a bunch of smart people" working on Origin who may eventually "build stuff in the future" that's useful for consumers and developers alike.

"They have a lot of work to do to get to where they need to be and where I, as a customer would want them to be," he said. "I don't think they're doing anything super-well yet.

"They have a bunch of smart people working on it but I think they're still playing catch up to a lot of people who have been working in the space for a while. I think they're recognising what the challenges are with building and scaling out this kind of system.

"That's not to say they won't build stuff in the future that is useful to software developers or to gamers but they haven't done that yet."

Newell also reiterated Valve would like to have EA's Origin-exclusive titles on Steam because it would make both EA and Steam customers happy.

"We think their customers would be happy if their games were on Steam, we tell them that on a regular basis," he said. "I think EA wants to take their shot at building their own alternative to Steam, and if they're successful at that and their customers like that then that's great.

"[But] whatever they're trying to do to create value for their customers is not a zero sum game."

Thanks, Eurogamer.