Wasteland 2 - Origin Deal

You may have heard that EA's Origin is offering crowd-funded titles - Kickstarter and IndieGogo projects - 90 days fee-free distribution, which prompted inXile to sign up with Wasteland 2. A quote from the press release via NMA:

Electronic Arts Inc. announced today a program to waive distribution fees on Origin™ for any developer that has a successfully crowd-funded, ready-to-publish downloadable PC game. Origin will provide distribution services free of charge for 90 days after the game’s launch, giving new crowd-funded games a chance to reach the growing Origin audience of more than 12 million registered users worldwide.

“I have had a long relationship with EA and it is great to see them recognize and support the crowd-funded games model”

“The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal,” said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President of Origin at EA. “It’s also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers.”

In turn, this lead some players to believe Wasteland 2 would be an Origin exclusive, despite the DRM-free promise. Fortunately, Brian Fargo clarified via Twitter:

It is absolutely NOT going to be exclusive on Origin. They are just one of many digital stores we will support.