The executives at Electronic Arts are probably grateful that the New York Comic-Con occurred this weekend. Without something to occupy the geek set, even more attention would have been paid to their Origin digital distribution service coupon code code snafu.
Here’s how it went down: A handful of randomly selected North American Origin users were invited to participate in a survey. Answering the questions earned them a coupon code good for $20 toward an Origin game purchase. These codes were meant for one-time use; however, it was eventually discovered (and posted to Reddit) that they could be used multiple times by multiple people. Therefore, anyone on the continent could stack the coupons and purchase any game they desired. Needless to say, the Origin service’s popularity grew a bit after the discovery.
Yesterday, in a fairly shocking move, the company’s community manager, Sam Houston, issued an official statement that EA will honor all purchases made with the coupon, both legitimate and illegitimate. “[we] hope fans enjoy the games,” Houston said. Bravo, EA!
I won’t ask if you engaged in this illegal activity, but I am interested in hearing from Origin users. Do you like the service? How does it compare to Valve’s Steam? Let us know in the comments.