Origin vs. Origin
Name and brand recognition is extremely important in business so what happens when your companies name gets confused with another large company? First reported on Kotaku, there has been some mixing up of companies between the South Florida based custom builder of gaming computers, Origin PC and the Electronic Arts digital delivery service Origin.
What was the result of this, well, with games like Battlefield 3 and The Old Republic coming out you can imagine some people ended up contacting Origin PC about their Origin game.
“We receive numerous phone calls and emails every week with people asking billing questions about the games that they ordered on Origin”, Matt Fisher, Origin PC’s marketing specialist said. “We have to point out that they are calling ORIGIN PC, custom PC builder, and not EA Origin.”
This might sound like a good thing, more customers calling in, and more chances for a sale. However, for anyone that has ever dealt with the gaming community you know there is a wide array of people you will deal with and those chomping at the bit for a game may be a little less than pleasant when they find out you cannot help them.
Not only does this mix-up use company resources, but it can lead to misunderstandings between other companies as well. Companies looking to work with EA have contacted Origin PC and even employees just wearing the Origin PC t-shirts have been stopped by people looking for EA related answers.
“Someone contacted us before Quakecon and asked for a meeting,” explained Matt. “We asked them to confirm the subject matter prior to the meeting but they never did. We had time to meet with them so we scheduled the meeting and when they showed up they started asking a bunch of EA Origin questions.”
Could we see some sort of collaboration between Origin PC and Origin? Right now, we know of nothing on the table, but the gaming business just like all business is about connections and expansion. Perhaps in the end a little confusion can turn into a big opportunity.
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