EA Backtracks On Steam Discount Comments, Origin Has 87% Off Sale

Well, score some face points for EA on this one...sort of. According to a few UK-based websites such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun and a discount gaming site known as SavvyGamer, it appears the UK rendition of Origin is having a really deep-discounted sale right now with up to 87.5% off on select titles.

Given that I'm a Yank, when I click on the links in the above articles I get taken to the U.S. version of the Origin store where I get Yank prices. So I can't confirm first-hand that these sales are legit, but Rock, Paper, Shotgun has screenshots of the sales page for Skeptical Sams like myself. As indicated in the screenshot the games on sale at Origin include things like Dragon Age: Origins, which used to be £39.99 but is instead £5.00 even. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has also dropped from £19.99 down to £5.00 as well. Madness, I say...madness!

Regular readers might remember that not too long ago the head honcho of EA's digital distribution service, David DeMartini, was speaking with GameIndustry and explaining how EA wasn't going to be hosting any 75% off, going-out-of-business sales, apparently what he meant to say was that instead they would be having 87% off we've-already-been-dead-and-buried sales instead?

I don't really get it but the sudden change is probably in response to the deep interweb backlash spawned from the interview. See the thing is, you don't really win people over saying that you're not going to offer up a similar feature as a competitor because it "cheapens your IPs". It's rather obvious someone from marketing hopped right to it and decided to do a stealthy-ninja sale on Origin to save some face. And is it me or is EA constantly making recourse to save face?

In any turn of events, it's at least a good thing for gamers in the end: you get to buy premium games at up to 87.5% off their original digital retail price on the UK edition of EA's Origin. If I were you I would hop to it, unless of course, you're afraid of the spyware.