Origin: "We hope to be HBO meets Netflix for gaming," says Riccitiello

During a financial call to investors last night, EA CEO John Riccitiello mentioned the publishers plans for Origin, and stressed it is keeping an eye on the recently launched platform's profit margin when compared to rival services.

Riccitiello also said since launch, EA has seen "similar revenues" for its games on Origin compared to its offerings on Steam.

"We're seeing good uptake," said Riccitiello. "By way of comparision, when we've had good success on Steam and then the same title on Origin, we see similar revenues to a service that is much more mature and of higher scale at this point in time.

"So we're seeing good revenue flow through on Origin. And of course that's a good thing, since we capture virtually 100 percent margins there. I think the most important issue to us is watching how this thing scales. Obviously margins are going to be very, very important, but it's going to be how many we have, how frequently they use it, and how much they spend when they use it."

When asked by an investor on the call whether EA would consider offering third-party games on Origin, Riccitiello seemed confident in the possibility.

"We've had a lot of inbound inquiry about getting on," he said. "I think forward-looking publishers really want their content on any and every platform possible. One more sale is better than not.

"By way of example, even though we have Origin, we are pushing EA content digitally on any and every e-tailer platform we can, and in fact just this morning we were talking to the guys at GameStop, I was personally talking to them about just that. They're great partners for us... we love what we're getting with Origin.

"We hope to be HBO meets Netflix for gaming. But we're also very keen to have our content distributed to anywhere and everywhere gamers are."

Thanks, Gamasutra.