The Humble Origin "Get EA Games Without Paying EA" Bundle
It looks like people still want to buy Electronic Arts’ games, just not from EA. A few days ago, EA partnered with Humble Bundle to create the Humble Origin Bundle which offers 8 games, including the recently released Dead Space 3, for a minimum of $1. In addition, all of EA’s cut goes to charities, such as the Human Rights Campaign and the American Cancer Society. Within two days, over a million of these bundles had been sold, raking in over $5 million. The load on the Origin server, EA’s wretched digital distribution system, was so great that the code redemption servers went down, and as a result, the only way to play most of the games you purchased as part of the bundle was on Origin’s competitor, Steam.
These sales numbers are completely unprecedented, even for the Humble Bundle, which has had some high profile partners in the past, like Deep Silver. To put these numbers in perspective, Dead Space 3 sold 605,000 copies in its entire first month of release. In just two days, more people bought Dead Space 3 than in the entire month of February. I’m sure the price, $1 or more versus a premium $60, is a huge factor but how many of these sales are driven by the fact that EA isn't receiving a dime?
EA has received quite a bit of flak over the last couple of years. After winning the worst company of the year award--twice--many gamers vocally swore off of EA products, and I bet this group has used this Humble Bundle as an opportunity to pick up some high profile releases they may have missed. I personally know two people who have said as much. What do you think? Have people been avoiding EA games because they don't want to support the company?