Electronics Arts (NASDAQ:EA) has announced the addition of 11 more publishers to its PC digital distribution platform Origin. We believe the move will help not just increase EA’s span of games in digital distribution, but also help the company to compete more effectively against other major digital distribution platforms such as Valve Corporation’s Steam, Gamestop’s (NYSE:GME) Impulse and GameFly’s Direct2Drive.
See our full analysis of Electronic Arts
New publishers will buttress EA’s digital distribution endeavors
EA had launched Origin keeping in mind two major points. Firstly the company wanted a chunk out of the digital distribution market, which according to Deals4Downloads has grown by a whopping 220% since April 2010. [1] Secondly, having its own distribution platform would allow EA to directly reach its customers thereby shunting retailers and improving its margins substantially.
With the addition of 11 new publishers, Origin now boasts games from CD PROJEKT RED, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, inXile entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core Learning Ltd. and N3V Games, apart from more than 100 PC titles from EA. Origin has been growing strong since its release in June last year, with the daily user count standing in excess of 5 million users.
Out price estimate for Electronic Arts stands at $20.62, which is roughly 15% above the current market price.
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Notes:- Digital distribution platforms market analysis, Source: Deals4Downloads [↩]
