Origin

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What is Origin

EA Origin is the download manager and gaming service for the video game company Electronic Arts, where you can purchase, download and manage games.

The days of walking into video game stores are over. Similar to Steam, Origin offers users the ability to browse video games online, make purchases and download games and updates. You can register for an account for free, and Origin will keep track of all your online purchases.

Origin is used to access and play games from Electronic Arts, one of the largest video game companies in the world. Popular releases include the Sim City franchise, Dead Space, the FIFA soccer series, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare and Battlefield.

This free program is compatible with Windows and gives you access to the EA online gaming community. It has social capabilities and allows you to chat with your friends, see what games they're playing and invite them into your games. Origin for PC also allows you to broadcast your video gaming experience online, for gamers around the world to watch.

Origin keeps track of your in-game progress and synchronizes your progress across multiple devices, so you can pick up where you left off, even on a different machine. In addition to the popular list of paid titles, Origin has free games, free trials and also pre-release demo games and beta games. Returns are made easy, as long as you do so within a certain time frame.

In order to use Origin, download the application and run the installation package. You will need 150MB of disk space, Windows XP SP 2 or later, 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. Once you create your free account, you will have access to the Origin online store, as well as Origin's social networking tools and the program's other features.

Pros

Combined download manager, online store and social networking tool set

One account keeps track of all in-game progress, past purchases and EA-related activity

Cons

Only works with EA games

Most of the popular games are not free