With 4 million client installs and counting, EA is moving forward with plans to house third-party content on its Origin digital distribution service. How soon? Very soon, according to EA CFO Eric Brown.

“Initially, Origin is set up to deliver EA games, but very soon, we’ll be delivering third-party content to Origin,” noted EA CFO Eric Brown at a UBS conference in London today.

EA is expecting the numbers to climb significantly during this holiday season, presumably thanks in large part to Battlefield 3 – which requires Origin. The approach is similar to the one Valve took back in the heyday of Steam, requiring installation of the client to play Half Life 2.

“We’re fairly excited about Origin,” Brown added. “We have about 4 million installs of the client, we expect that number to climb substantially as we enter this … holiday season.”

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