EA taking notes new "On the House Program"

Sauce

Origin is following the leads of PlayStation Plus and Games with Gold by offering selected free games across limited times - the difference is you don't pay to be an Origin member. It's unclear how often Origin's new On the House program is going to trot out its freebies, but for starters members can get dismembering with third-person survival horror Dead Space, which is free to download now.

According to EA's FAQ, "once you've claimed your game, it's yours to keep." You've also got plenty of time to claim Dead Space, because it's staying free to download until May 8.

I guess Origin has begun taking notes, while it's a so so service giving out free games is always nice.

This is great. Man, could PC gaming get any better? I'm just not sure.

Valve (being a superior developer for men) done this ages ago.

What games does valve give out for free aside TF2 and F2P games which are developed that way?

Valve gave away Portal 2, but they do not have, nor have they ever had a program as described in this article. Origin, Amazon, Green Man Gaming, and GOG are all better services than Steam. Valve needs to step it up.

Yes! They have given away the portal games for free. I dunno valve is a pretty solid service with the sales and all.

Steam is the best is the universe. The numbers agree. Valve saved pc gaming (and thus saved gaming) and we should all be grateful, especially console gamers. Without pc, all games would be movie games.

It's a much better service than something like Gamefly, Gamestop, PSN, or Xbox Live. It's actually a very good service over all. It just needs to step it up because it is only the 5th best service for PC gaming. All of those services I listed have sales as frequently, if not more frequently, as Steam, at similar discount levels. Origin, GMG, and GOG have refund policies. GOG is DRM free. Some games on Amazon are DRM free and many do not require a client to run. Origin and Steam are the most similar, but Origin is more customer-friendly and this new free game program, if it lasts, puts it over the top, imo.

That's awesome.

PC gaming at its finest.

Nice

Sweet, I just got Battlefield 1942. Not a PC gamer so I don't have a controller other than the 360.

any wired 360 controller will work. you can also pick a usb wireless transceiver for wireless 360 controllers

Yeah, the 360 controller is actually the best PC controller on the market.

I caught this earlier today. Good times, I actually liked Dead Space and didn't own it for the PC.

It's really good for the PC, however it's kinda shitty Vsync causes major controller/ MKB delay. Otherwise it looks and runs great,

That's what it is? I noticed it was kind of laggy. No fix after all these years?

Yup it's the Vsync, Luckily It doesn't have too much tearing, maybe really heavy action parts but it wasn't anything god awful IMO ( varies from person to person I guess)

Prettu sure I've got Dead Space from a humblebundle but never redeemed the key due to Origin.

It's still nice though.

@Animal-Mother: Actually Steam has been slacking in terms of services and sales the last 6-12 months. Amazon, GMG and GOG has been catching up to Steam and even surpassing Steam in a few categories. I wouldn't be surprised if Origins starts to surpass Steam as well.

"Every King loses his crown someday", GG Steam.

Ehhh, I don't think steam will ever falter too hard but do these services give away games that often.

I don't know if it's so much like PS+ and GwG.

Just EA giving a free game to give people incentive to download Origin.

I still haven't downloaded Origin

EA just doesn't do anything for me anymore (as a PC gamer).

I don't know about giving games away but the sites I listed are actually starting to have better sales than Steam.

That's awesome. I already have Dead Space but I'm interested to see what other games this will bring for free.

It also gave steam keys for the games that were on steam, like Dead Space

but DEAD SPACE

Don't look now but EA has been stellar if you look at the past 9 months or so.

@heretrix: You finished Splinter Cell: Blacklist?

Dead Space 2, not Dead Space as far as I recall.

Edit:

It seems I was wrong, Dead Space is on my Steam list as well.

Started to buy this and DS2 on Steam a while back, glad I didn't. Thanks, EA!

Very nice.

Already have Dead Space on Origin (Humble Origin Bundle) and 360 though.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk. No. I recently had to do a redo on my PC and mistakenly trusted Ubisoft to keep my game saves safe after a total wipe. I lost all my Ubisoft game saves through some shitty cloud save fiasco and was too demoralized to start again. I haven't looked at any of my Ubisoft games since then and I'm seriously wary of purchasing anything from them again.

But I did like what I played of it, thanks again for the hook up. I'm gonna finish it eventually though. I've beaten them all so far...

Nope, Dead Space was Origin exclusive.

Okay, that's pretty cool. Although I already own a retail copy of Dead Space on PC (which I still NEED to beat).

wouldnt matter to me since i dont have a pc to run it

Didn't your last comment say you had it on steam as well :p

I do, but it was'nt through humblebundle.

Anyway, I just checked and I do indeed have a steam key now as well, so it's been retconned if I was'nt wrong to begin with ;)

Would you like a copy of DS? I also have keys for Crysis 2: Max Edition, MOH and Burnout: Paradise.

Thanks for the offer, very kind of you, but I already have it.

I had already bought it on steam before the humble bundle, like you. In fact I had Dead Space 1&2 and so I bought the humble bundle so I could have 3. I also gave BF3 to a friend so we could play online.

Plus lately those sales also are for Steam keys, which I like for the sake of keeping all my games in one spot. Helps my OCD.

As much hate EA is getting ( and rightfully so for a lot of stuff ) its DD service ( origin ) is really making strides in becoming a really great platform ( more frequent and bigger sales should be next step ) . Their refund policy and now this are 2 thinks that are better compared to steam ( though Steam is still the better service )

lol just downloaded Origin only for the free game. Probably wont buy anything else on it. Only free stuff

Why wouldn't you buy anything else on it?

Because Steam is the only place I buy PC games. That or physical copies

That seems awfully limiting.

Why exactly? Most games on Origin are on steam (and probably cheaper aswell, and even if they arent they'll be sooner or later on steam sales). The exclusive EA games that interest me (wich are very few of them) I can buy for consoles wich are my platform of choice. I dont see how I'm limiting myself here honestly

It just seems sort of dumb to wait on a steam sale if the game is already on sale at a different store. Do you do all of your retail shopping at the same store, too?

uh? Are you dense? In no way Origin sales match Steam sales. Nice try. And I only buy PC games for very cheap. I still have yet to see an unskipable Origin sale that matches a Steam one. Oh, and the steam sales are more frequent aswell so I would have to wait a lot more for an Origin sale.

And yes, most of my retail shopping is at the same store. Got any prob with that? Wanna tell me what to do with my money again?

They aren't as frequent, but they are just as good. I just don't see the point of store loyalty. You wouldn't have to wait on the Origin sale if the Steam sale came first, just like you wouldn't have to wait on a Steam sale if the game were on sale on Origin/Amazon/GMG/GOG first. You can do with your money what you want. I was just curious with the "only buy from steam" mentality. I see it often, and it's troubling because a single service dominating the entire digital PC marketplace really isn't healthy in the long run.