Origin Offering Deep Discounts On Many Games... Er?

So figure this one out. You may remember that twelve days ago, there was quite a lot of discussion over EA's Origin store boss saying they wouldn't be engaging in "deep discount" sales on their Steam-rivalling service. David DeMartini (whose name sounds like he should be the star of a Bond spoof) said, "We won't be doing that," when asked about such services. Explaining why he added, "I just think it cheapens your intellectual property."

Today on Origin, Dragon Age: Origins is available for £5. That's discounted from £40 - an incredible 87.5% off!

Spore is 75% off, as is Darksiders, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Battlefied: Bad Company 2. 66% savings can be found on Alice: Madness Returns and Darkspore, while Dead Space 2, Shank, Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam, Mirror's Edge, The Saboteur, Gotham City Imposters, Gatling Gears, and Batman: Arkham Asylum are all half price.

That's half the price of their current Origin prices, of course. Not half the price of their original prices. In fact, most of those games are now available for 87.5% off their original launch price. That's an awful lot of intellectual property EA are cheapening today.

"Occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount," said DeMartini less than two weeks ago. "Just don’t look for 75 percent off going-out-of-business sales."

Uh-oh!

We've contacted EA to ask them why the sudden change of heart. Cheers to Lewie P for the spot.