It's not a secret that the summer sales over at Steam have become the shining example of digital sales done right - games are discounted in huge amounts, making purchasing several games between $2-5 a regular occurrence during the sale season. Thus far, nobody has been able to compete with such pricing, including the relatively new EA Origin service, which disgruntled many gamers by pulling several flagship EA titles from the Steam marketplace, but not offering the same level of sales as the competition. Recently, though, the Origin Summer Sale has taken the first step in proving that the service can be a liable competitor for Steam.
The new sale offers an impressive 36 different titles marked down to $4.99 until August 9th, 2011. While the length of the sale is certainly shorter than many will like, the deals are worth a look, offering some great savings - provided you live within the US and Canada, which are the only countries the sale prices are in affect for.
It's refreshing to see some good news attached to EA's Origin service, after so many fans were forced to see Dragon Age 2 DLC be pulled from Valve's digital shelves, and watch Battlefield 3 bypass Steam altogether.
Without further ado, here's the titles you can purchase for $4.99:
- Battlefield 2142
- Battlefield 2: Complete Collection
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam
- Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
- Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 Uprising
- Mercenaries 2
- Medal of Honor Airborne
- Medal of Honor Hot Zone Map Pack
- Spore
- Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
- Spore Creature Creator
- Mirror's Edge
- Create
- SimCity: Socities
- SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
- The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
- The Sims 2: Free Time
- The Sims 2: Seasons
- The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
- The Sims 2: Apartment Life
- The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff
- The Sims 2: Best of Business Collection
- The Sims 2: University Life Collection
- The Sims Pet Stories
- The Sims Castaway Stories
- The Sims Life Stories
- My Sims
- Littlest Pet Shop
- Need for Speed: Carbon
- Need for Speed: Undercover
- Need for Speed: Pro Street
- Burnout Paradise Ultimate
There's certainly good value to be had if you're a fan of series like Need for Speed, The Sims, Battlefield or Command and Conquer. And while Origin has been getting some fairly bad opinions thrown around for their lack of 'Steam-like' sales, this is certainly a step in the right direction for the fledgling digital distribution platform.
If Electronic Arts can keep up these kinds of discounts, we might see some surprising competition against Steam, who have plainly dominated digital gaming stores since they expanded from solely selling Valve games several years ago.
What do you think about the Origin Summer Sale? Do you think Origin can compete with Steam if they can keep up with sales like this? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.